One of Anthony Albanese’s top ministers makes a stunning admission that will devastate younger votes – but make Baby Boomers VERY happy

Australia’s housing minister has declared Anthony Albanese’s government doesn’t want house prices to fall – despite them being very unaffordable for the young.

Clare O’Neil made the admission on Triple J’s youth-orientated Hack program recently, when she was hit with a barrage of questions about the housing market being ‘stacked against young people’.

‘We want to bring house price growth into something sustainable – so we’re not trying to bring down house prices,’ Ms O’Neil said.

‘But we don’t want to see some of the growth that we’ve seen in some parts of the country – where you’re getting double-digit increases in house prices year-on-year.’

That prompted a surprised host David Marchese to ask: ‘Why don’t you want to be seeing house prices to drop?

‘If you’re looking at getting into the market, if you’re a young person looking at what’s ahead of you, you definitely want to see house prices come down.’  

O’Neil rejected the argument – saying the government was committed to building more housing and reducing rental vacancies.

‘That may be the view of young people – it’s not the view of our government,’ she said.

Such comments could alienate young voters – with Labor under intense pressure from the Greens, who are campaigning to scrap negative gearing tax breaks for landlord investors. 

Baby boomer home owners would rejoice at a surge in house prices.

Labor lost the 2019 election after vowing to scrap negative gearing for future purchases of existing investment properties, and halve the capital gains tax discount to 25 per cent.

Since then, Labor in government has focused on keeping middle-aged and older voters in marginal seats who own investment properties – but exposing them to a backlash from younger renters who want to get into the housing market.  

Melbourne is the only big capital city where house prices have fallen during the past year.

While its median house price of $923,422 is unaffordable for an average, full-time worker on $100,000, it still has affordable suburbs near the water like Frankston North where $591,214 is the mid-point.

That’s attainable for someone earning $91,000 – following a 2.3 per cent fall across greater Melbourne in the year to November as a state land tax turned off potential investors, CoreLogic data showed. 

Even Brisbane is becoming increasingly unaffordable for the young with its median house price soaring by 11 per cent over the year to $974,396.

Affordable satellite cities like Ipswich, Logan and Caboolture are now slipping beyond the reach of average-income earners as house prices surge by double-digit figures.

More suburbs have a mid-point price beyond the $650,000 level that would be attainable for an average-income borrower with a 20 per cent deposit.

Perth’s median house price has soared by a whopping 20.7 per cent during the past year to $842,227, diminishing the availability of affordable houses.

Sydney was already unaffordable with a mid-point house price of almost $1.5million – or 15 times an average, full-time salary before a 20 per cent deposit is even factored in.

Even apartments are very unaffordable at $865,422.

Houses in outer suburbs of south-west Sydney typically cost $1million, which means only working couples can typically afford a home with a backyard.

Darwin is the only capital city where average-income earners can buy a median-priced house on their own, with a mid-point of $580,091 in the cyclone-prone tropical north of Australia.

Record-high annual immigration levels above 500,000 have continued to underpin house prices despite the Reserve Bank of Australia raising interest rates 13 times in 2022 and 2023.