“New book reveals politicians’ policies inflate property values, making homes less affordable; insights for buyers from Terry Ryder.”

Politicians often speak about housing affordability, but a new book reveals how their policies are in fact fuelling higher property values and making homes less affordable. Terry Ryder from Hotspotting joins to discuss his new book Why Property Values Rise.

We explore what politicians really want when it comes to property prices, how location myths mislead buyers, and why luxury features like pools or prestige suburbs aren’t what really drive value.

Ryder also explains how constant change shapes the housing market, what myths investors should ignore, and the key insights every buyer needs to know.

The biggest single problem causing Australia’s housing crisis is the cost of creating new dwellings.

The cost of the standard city house-and-land package is now $950,000 and is getting scarily close to $1 million for a newly constructed house in our capital cities.

Governments of all levels and persuasions tell us constantly that they desperately want to improve housing affordability, but what few of them shout about as loudly is that about 40% of the cost of new housing is made up of government taxes, fees and charges.

It seems incongruous that when cost is the biggest factor preventing new dwellings from being built, governments, which promise they are working on solutions, are doing nothing to ease the tax burden.

Builders and developers cannot deliver their normal products because the cost of construction is prohibitively high.

Earlier this year, the Productivity Commission revealed that government interference and bureaucracy had massively reduced productivity in the building industry.

Delays double the timeline

It now takes twice as long to deliver a new home compared to the 1990s.

This alone added considerable cost to new homes to the point where it is often no longer financially viable to build.

Recent analysis by the National Australia Bank confirms this. Its quarterly Residential Property Survey found that high construction costs and delays in getting approvals are by far the biggest barriers to producing new homes across Australia.

While much of the media would have us believe that interest rates are a big barrier, that was not the case, with very few of the survey respondents nominating that or tight finance as an issue.

It doesn’t matter how many new homes the Federal Government says it will build: until the issues of bureaucratic delays, high property taxes and the overall cost of construction are dealt with, building targets will not be met and the shortage will remain.

Terry Ryder is the Founder of Hotspotting and Host of  The Property Playbook on Ticker.

Australia’s mortgage market soars to $4.62 billion in June 2025, led by first-home buyers prioritizing debt repayment.

Australia’s mortgage market is surging, with loans through the nation’s largest broker network hitting $4.62 billion in June 2025, the second-highest month on record.

First-home buyers are leading the charge, while most borrowers are choosing to pay down debt rather than ease repayments despite lower rates.

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