Series
What is happening to The Great Australian Dream?
Is our love affair with housing responsible for the problems plaguing our cities, governments and way of life?
- Exclusive
- For subscribers
How the great Australian dream transformed the economy into a house of cards
In a country with some of the most expensive housing in the world, Australians are carrying record levels of debt to pay for homes ever-more distant from their places of work.
- Shane Wright, Rachel Clun and Craig Butt
How the Australian housing industry boomed into a generational problem
The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated longstanding problems in the country’s housing market.
- Rachel Clun, Shane Wright and Craig Butt
- Exclusive
- Property tax
Overcome NIMBYs and build where people want to live: The tough, but necessary solutions
The solutions to Australia’s housing problems are well known. But the political danger of taking on huge vested interests is clear.
- Shane Wright, Rachel Clun and Craig Butt
- Exclusive
Squeezed out of the Australian dream: Two-thirds of young people are giving up on home ownership
Experts believe the nation’s living standards and productivity performance are being harmed by the way the property sector is distorting business and consumer behaviour.
- Shane Wright and Craig Butt
- Opinion
Australians have made the wrong choice about housing for the last 40 years
Our love affair with property is literally destroying our way of life and that of future generations.
- Shane Wright
$400 a week for a flat that smells of old milk: The tsunami coming for renters
Being a renter in Australia has never been more difficult, thanks to record low vacancy rates and skyrocketing rents. But it’s also becoming increasingly difficult to be an investor.
- Rachel Clun and Shane Wright
- Animation
How Australia’s property obsession is damaging the entire economy
Tracking property prices is a national sport. But what if the housing market was even more of a problem? What if the entire economy was being eaten by a property monster?
Other series
Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2026
This year’s laugh fest has kicked off, with more than 2000 performers stepping up to the mic. Here, our writers take a closer look
- 9 stories
Hate of origin: Inside football’s most intense rivalry
Essendon and Hawthorn have hated each other for more than 40 years, from some old-fashioned thuggery and a fake drug scandal in the mid-80s to last year’s failed bid by the Hawks to poach the Bombers’ captain.
- 5 stories