Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
As many of us know, housing in Australia is pretty broken. As Real Estate reported last month: “Australia’s affordable suburbs vanish as homes under $500,000 become nearly extinct,” while last week, the ABC declared: “Calls for cheaper homes are ‘nonsense’ while banking system underpinned by housing.”
Although I was lucky enough to buy my own property a few years ago—albeit an old unit—I know many people, both born-and-bred Aussies and immigrants, who are struggling. Mostly, it’s people who are working full-time, but due to the high cost of rent, they simply cannot save enough money to buy into this speculative fever dream of a market despite repeated attempts. Many of these people are bordering on depression due to the slow death of the Great Australian Dream.
Economists will tell you there’s only really two things at play here: Supply—that is, there are not enough houses being built—or Demand: an ever-growing line of people fighting over the same scraps of real estate—aided and abetted, of course, by government tax incentives. To fix the housing problem, you need to address supply, demand, or ideally, both.
The Albanese Government is ostensibly trying to address supply by building 1.2 million homes by the end of the decade. However, recent news reports aren’t too optimistic: Real Estate announced: “Australia 77,500 homes short of crucial housing target after $110bn record,” while News com au was a little less forgiving, writing: “Falling construction, rising migration make Albo’s grand housing plan a distant fantasy.”
But they do raise a good point—immigration. It doesn’t matter how many homes you build; if you keep bringing in more people than you have roofs to accommodate them, you’ll never be able to catch up. We’ll forever be in a housing crisis.
Obviously, if ever you use “immigration” and “housing crisis” in the same sentence, the accusations of “racism” start flying. “How dare you blame immigrants for the housing crisis!” is the inevitable cry. No, I don’t blame immigrants… I blame the government. Immigrants can only arrive in record numbers because the government opens the door and invites them in. This isn’t an act of nature—it’s a policy choice. This is a crisis by design.
Of course, the usual suspects will try to gaslight us and say high immigration is fine. The ABC insisted last year: “International students not to blame for rising rents, Australian study finds.” Surprise, surprise. And: “Building industry calls for more migrant workers to address housing crisis.” See, we need more immigrants, not less!
SBS joined in on the fun: “‘Pushed out of paradise’: High migration is often blamed for the housing crisis. Is that right?” I think you already know the answer: No. Immigration is always good, silly!
So there you go, the “research” and “experts” have spoken: Ignore your eyes and your ears, immigration has nothing to do with the housing crisis.
But in a completely unpredictable turn of events, some real-world data has emerged from Canada suggesting that—wait for it—reducing migration actually cools the housing market.
The Guardian reported over the weekend: “Canada slashed migration and housing costs dropped. There may be lessons for Australia.”
Who would have thought?
The article states that the country’s population is “now shrinking for the first time since the 1940s”; experts say the impact on housing costs “has been undeniable.” In this chart, they show that since the pandemic, Australian rents have continued to skyrocket, while in Canada—under their new low-migration policies—asking rents are in a steady decline.
It’s funny: in Australia, one set of experts says that immigration has little or no bearing on house prices, yet in Canada, when provided with undeniable evidence, another set of experts says that cutting immigration has a profound impact.
I’m struggling to work out which set of experts to listen to—the ones with the theories, or the ones with the results.
The article noted that “more than half of Canadians surveyed in late 2024 said they thought too many immigrants were coming into the country, with housing affordability cited as a key reason for this view.” It turns out, the majority was right. Too much immigration does indeed drive up house prices.
Who would have thought that regular Canadians—the ones actually living in the real world—could see what the ivory tower experts couldn’t?
So, as it turns out, if you stop worrying about the name-calling and start focusing on basic maths, the government can actually fix this. They just have to put the “racism” card back in the deck and adopt a pragmatic approach that brings house prices back down to a level where regular people can actually afford a roof over their heads.
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
As many of us know, housing in Australia is pretty broken. As Real Estate reported last month: “Australia’s affordable suburbs vanish as homes under $500,000 become nearly extinct,” while last week, the ABC declared: “Calls for cheaper homes are ‘nonsense’ while banking system underpinned by housing.”
Although I was lucky enough to buy my own property a few years ago—albeit an old unit—I know many people, both born-and-bred Aussies and immigrants, who are struggling. Mostly, it’s people who are working full-time, but due to the high cost of rent, they simply cannot save enough money to buy into this speculative fever dream of a market despite repeated attempts. Many of these people are bordering on depression due to the slow death of the Great Australian Dream.
Economists will tell you there’s only really two things at play here: Supply—that is, there are not enough houses being built—or Demand: an ever-growing line of people fighting over the same scraps of real estate—aided and abetted, of course, by government tax incentives. To fix the housing problem, you need to address supply, demand, or ideally, both.
The Albanese Government is ostensibly trying to address supply by building 1.2 million homes by the end of the decade. However, recent news reports aren’t too optimistic: Real Estate announced: “Australia 77,500 homes short of crucial housing target after $110bn record,” while News com au was a little less forgiving, writing: “Falling construction, rising migration make Albo’s grand housing plan a distant fantasy.”
But they do raise a good point—immigration. It doesn’t matter how many homes you build; if you keep bringing in more people than you have roofs to accommodate them, you’ll never be able to catch up. We’ll forever be in a housing crisis.
Obviously, if ever you use “immigration” and “housing crisis” in the same sentence, the accusations of “racism” start flying. “How dare you blame immigrants for the housing crisis!” is the inevitable cry. No, I don’t blame immigrants… I blame the government. Immigrants can only arrive in record numbers because the government opens the door and invites them in. This isn’t an act of nature—it’s a policy choice. This is a crisis by design.
Of course, the usual suspects will try to gaslight us and say high immigration is fine. The ABC insisted last year: “International students not to blame for rising rents, Australian study finds.” Surprise, surprise. And: “Building industry calls for more migrant workers to address housing crisis.” See, we need more immigrants, not less!
SBS joined in on the fun: “‘Pushed out of paradise’: High migration is often blamed for the housing crisis. Is that right?” I think you already know the answer: No. Immigration is always good, silly!
So there you go, the “research” and “experts” have spoken: Ignore your eyes and your ears, immigration has nothing to do with the housing crisis.
But in a completely unpredictable turn of events, some real-world data has emerged from Canada suggesting that—wait for it—reducing migration actually cools the housing market.
The Guardian reported over the weekend: “Canada slashed migration and housing costs dropped. There may be lessons for Australia.”
Who would have thought?
The article states that the country’s population is “now shrinking for the first time since the 1940s”; experts say the impact on housing costs “has been undeniable.” In this chart, they show that since the pandemic, Australian rents have continued to skyrocket, while in Canada—under their new low-migration policies—asking rents are in a steady decline.
It’s funny: in Australia, one set of experts says that immigration has little or no bearing on house prices, yet in Canada, when provided with undeniable evidence, another set of experts says that cutting immigration has a profound impact.
I’m struggling to work out which set of experts to listen to—the ones with the theories, or the ones with the results.
The article noted that “more than half of Canadians surveyed in late 2024 said they thought too many immigrants were coming into the country, with housing affordability cited as a key reason for this view.” It turns out, the majority was right. Too much immigration does indeed drive up house prices.
Who would have thought that regular Canadians—the ones actually living in the real world—could see what the ivory tower experts couldn’t?
So, as it turns out, if you stop worrying about the name-calling and start focusing on basic maths, the government can actually fix this. They just have to put the “racism” card back in the deck and adopt a pragmatic approach that brings house prices back down to a level where regular people can actually afford a roof over their heads.
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
