House prices are higher in Sydney and Melbourne than in almost all other developed-nation cities, with the result that most young households cannot afford to buy a detached house. Why? This research examines some possible answers.

This web report provides up-to-date information relating to government funded provision of social housing, rent assistance, purchase assistance and support services to help households maintain their tenancies.

Through Australia’s history, private developers have introduced restrictive covenants to property titles. Typical private covenants stipulate building materials, limit dwelling numbers, and prohibit particular land uses or the sale of alcohol. Covenants, like zoning, have tended to “put the single-family, owner-occupied home at the pinnacle of uses to be protected”, and have functioned as security...

The city of Melbourne is one significantly shaped by the activities of private land developers, who undertook the subdivision, planning, and sale of residential estates which now comprise the bulk of extant suburbs. A number of these estates were highly speculative in nature, reflecting renewed public interest in real estate following each of the two...

This paper examines how housing figured in the development of classical liberal governmentality over the nineteenth century.