Renters as refugees. Home buyers as hostages.

Australia does not have a housing shortage.
It has a policy surplus. And most of it rewards speculation, not shelter.

Every night, 85,000 hotel and motel rooms sit empty.
At the same time, over 300,000 homes are locked in the short-term rental pool.
These homes once housed families. Now they host guests.

Renters are being pushed into hardship.
First home buyers are priced out or pushed further away.
Vacancy rates are near zero. Approval delays stretch beyond 18 months.
Builders are collapsing under fixed-cost contracts.

This is not a crisis of supply.
It is a failure of incentives.

There is a simple place to start.
Remove the capital gains tax discount from short-term rentals.
Leave long-term rentals untouched.
Do not ban short-term platforms. But stop subsidising them through the tax system.

The policy intent was to support long-term housing.
Not to fund micro-hotels in residential zones.

We need shelter back in the hands of people who need homes.
We need policy that stops bleeding supply into volatility.

We need a system that frees the hostages.

For access to the analysis files email andrew@chatointernational.com