I have given up any hope of buying a house at least until I am in my 30's. Unlike my parents who bought their house in their early-mid 20's
Reasons why.
Doing uni for 5 years- no income for 5 years and paying HECS of 30K.
Teaching- unless you are permanent you need a higher deposit.
Teaching- no guarantee of where you will be working until permanent.
if you want house prices to stabilize and become more affordable then you need to scrap all the first home buyer schemes or at least all the ones where they give money as all they do is add double the amount onto a house that's fr sale (ie if its $7000 the houses will increase by $14000)
remove negative gearing on all existing houses and and only have it apply on new houses that are rented/leased at a loss no tenant no tax benefit so they are not just being term deposits.
lending standards have all ready been tightened up but could still use a bit more tightening.
It is hard to not buy a McMansion when pretty much all that is built is McMansions in the new suburbs which is where somewhat affordable housing is.
to buy a house within an hour and half of a major city or half 3/4 hour of major regional center you need 2 wages 1 wage basically pays the house the other is what you live off.
i would also class my self as lucky as i managed to get a reasonable paying job out bush which let me buy a house on a single wage but but even then i still ended up with a McMansion that i did not want as everything else i looked was rooted and it would of been more econmical to build a new house then fix up an old weather board, and that was with the house's starting at 50k.
but i am also an hour away from the nearest regional center and 4 hours from Melbourne, so once a fortnight i do a major shopping run with an hours driving each way not a lot of people will want to do somethuing like that.
Removing negative gearing on existing housing certainly might channel more funding into building new housing which might reduce the the rental shortage, but special measures will be needed to provide accommodation for the 110,000 homeless people, as they can't afford normal rentals. Maybe studio apartments might be the answer for many homeless people. I saw that work in Thailand.
ONe thing when building the new houses and units , they seem to lack in decent thermal and acoustic insulation, and the lack of useful space in units really put me off. I found it easier to put a bit of work into an older unit , that includes a decent sized lock up garage than to get a new place at a similar price. Maybe look at simpler designs, focused on essential features like insulation, storage and such . No need for new estates of cheek by jowl McMansions miles from public transport to work and amenities , with road road plans that look like a plate of spaghetti. I think there is a reason why the romans set up their camps in a grid.