Sydney now has the second least affordable housing market of 94 major global cities, and Melbourne is not far behind. Rents for houses and apartments surged by 16% and 20% over the past 12 months as immigration intake of 400,000 has pushed vacancy rates down to around 1%. In the thirty years from 1991 to 2021 Australia house prices increased by more than 400%. Prices surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, growing by 25% between April 2020 and February 2022. With the social housing segment comprising just 4% of all households many Australia, compared to 17% in the UK, 14% in France, 34% in the Netherlands and an average of 7% across the OECD, millions of lower income Australians are facing some of the most least affordable housing in the developed world. With the housing crisis set to sharply worsen what should we expect and what can be done?

Robin Scott

Robin Scott is a former Minister in the Victorian Government, now working at ADI as an Industry Professor. As the Finance Minister, he was responsible for leasing of Government offices, sale of government land, regulation of social housing and builders warranty insurance, and he also served as an acting Minister for Planning. With these experiences he has significant insights into the housing crisis currently facing our community.

Farah Farouque

Farah took up the newly created role as Director of Community Engagement at Tenants Victoria in April 2020 just as the pandemic took hold. She leads a multi-disciplinary team of professionals straddling policy, training/legal education, strategic communications, and community development. A professional journalist Farah previously worked at the Brotherhood of St Laurence, the Canberra and Victorian parliamentary press galleries, and Law and Justice Editor, at for The Age for 14 years, and not-for-profit boards serving multicultural communities.

Fethi Mansouri 

Professor Mansouri holds the UNESCO Chair in comparative research on ‘Cultural Diversity and Social Justice’ and an Alfred Deakin Research Chair in migration and intercultural studies. Professor Mansouri is the Director of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University-Australia. 

The Alfred Deakin Institute Policy Forums aim to provide a high-profile platform for the Institute to bring together policy makers, researchers and community members for informed debate on important emerging policy issues. They foster informed debate, engage the public and provide research-led input to policy formation at national, State and regional levels.