The Australian Housing Crisis

One of the things that often come into the mind of many Australian permanent visa applicants is that they will be able to settle into their own home in the country. Often, they would go on further to dream of a house and lot complete with a garden at the side and a car of their own. And just like native Australians, they consider this to be the ultimate achievement that they must accomplish.

Indeed, this one is an ideal picture that many immigrants would want to see. However, with the current situation in the country, this seems to be getting harder to get. You see, Australia is actually suffering now from a huge housing crisis.

How so, Australia is such a large place? You might probably be thinking about this one right now. To further understand the issue, it would be a good idea for you to know more about the Australian landscape further. Despite the country's large size, it being a continent, much of it is actually an arid desert area. Thus, the habitable regions are limited only into certain places.

Since most of the Australian population live in these small regions, they have pretty much filled up the areas. However, the country's population is not static. In fact, it is actually growing at a fast rate yearly, immigration being one of the major reasons behind the increase. And to make things even more difficult, the rate of housing development can't barely keep up with the growth of the population, which leads to the current housing shortage.

But this not yet the end of the housing crisis story. Another major factor with regards to housing is price. And as the demand for housing in the country goes up, the prices also actually follows it. This makes it unattainable for many average Australians to even just rent a house, more so to buy one of their own.

The government has responded to the crisis by ordering the hastening of housing development in the areas where the crisis is most severe. They have also started releasing large tracts of government land solely for this purpose. Also, the release of housing loans have also been increased, in order for those in need of it to quickly purchase their houses.

However, according to some experts, the problem can not be solved by these methods alone. They suggest a total revamp of the housing price rates in order to make these more affordable to the wider public. They said that the price increase that was brought about by the demand in the previous years have actually left out a huge surplus of housing units left unoccupied, mainly due to them being unaffordable. They argue that getting these units within the reach of more people would be better than building more houses.

Whichever way it goes, the housing problem is unlikely to be solved quickly. And for that, the immigrant will have to wait a little while more for his dream house to come true. .