CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact
As the government lays the groundwork for a major housing affordability package in next month’s federal budget, thousands of Sydney’s affluent baby boomers have taken to the streets in protest, for the first time since the Vietnam War.
Although this time, the members of the Post-WWII baby boom aren’t protesting conscription and other humanitarian issues – they are protesting the Government’s proposed changes to multiple home-ownership and and policies aimed at curbing the hysterical Australian housing market.
“Hay hay! ho ho! the whingeing millenials have to go!” chanted the crowd of silver-haired wealth hoarders.
Other battle cries included “Sco-Mo don’t give in! Leave the housing market as it is!”
Although treasurer Scott Morrison (ScoMo) has made it clear that his aim is to not fiddle with any nest eggs, the Baby Boomers still hold grave fears that the properties they bought for 60k in the 1980s might not continue to go up by 20% every year. They also worry that the Government might make things difficult for foreign property investors – the only realistic buyers in the urban market.
Morrison on Monday delivered a speech to the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute in Melbourne laying the groundwork for a broadbased housing affordability package in next month’s budget.
The package will likely include a scheme for first-home buyers to access their superannuation, tax breaks for downsizing retirees, rental support, and measures to improve supply by unlocking federal land for housing.
However, there is no sign of changes to negative gearing, which have rendered millions of properties in Sydney and Melbourne empty, as Baby Boomer investors find it cheaper to leave the place empty on tax breaks than having to actually maintian the property for whingeing Gen-Y occupants.
Despite having no bathroom facilities, kitchen facilities, nearby parking or bedrooms, the fire exit was snapped up by an overseas investor, site unseen.
