Australians have lashed out at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after he took to social media on Sunday to reveal 45 new homes for Melbourne had been built.
“Nine months ago, these homes were still under construction. Now, 45 new social and affordable homes in Melbourne are ready for people to move into,” Mr Albanese proudly declared on X.
He insisted, “We’re throwing everything we can at housing.”
Mr Albanese then listed the housing policies he claimed would leave Australians better off: “5 per cent deposits for first home buyers. Fairer housing taxes. And more homes being built right across the country.
“Because everyone deserves a place to call home.”
Alongside his comments, Mr Albanese shared a before and after photograph of the Melbourne homes, showing himself beaming while standing inside a new build, complete with a sparkling sink and fresh paint.
However, many Australians were less than thrilled about the PM’s housing update and accused him of being out of touch.
“45 houses in nine months?” one person wrote. “You need 657 a day to meet your own target. Or are we supposed to give you a participation award for completing 0.0001 per cent (or whatever it is)?”
Others were more scathing: “Wait 9 months and 45 houses that’s it??? Ur (sic) taking the p**s.”
“And in the same time 350,000 immigrants came to Australia. These 45 homes are really keeping up with the pace.”
He was also slammed for “bragging” about the “pathetically low number”, with a commenter noting that it’s “not the flex you clearly think it is”.
It comes after the Albanese government’s announcement in Tuesday’s budget of a $2 billion funding package aimed at delivering 65,000 new homes over the next decade.
In a note on Wednesday, AMP chief economist Dr Shane Oliver said while there are more measures to help boost housing supply in this year’s budget, it was yet to be seen whether the pressure on housing would be eased over the long term.
“The changes to negative gearings and the CGT discount could result in a 5 per cent of so fall in home prices in the short term as investors retreat due to a fall in the perceived after-tax return to property investment and this will no doubt be chalked up as a win for the policy change,” Dr Oliver said.
“But it’s doubtful that the moves will boost housing affordability much over the longer term – as the basic driver of this is a shortage of housing relative to underlying population driven housing demand.”
Dr Oliver noted that policies that reduce investor interest in property will end up lowering housing supply instead of increasing it.
“The government was right in its first term to focus on boosting supply but now two years into the Housing Accord goal to produce 240,000 homes a year we have been running around 60,000 below target and so making no inroads into the undersupply of housing which we estimate to be between 200,000 to 300,000 dwellings.”
