Monetary Policy / Interest rates

Rents have rocketed and property prices are hot, but the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has changed the way it looks at the market and a key analysis panel that examines housing issues has not met for more than a year.

The Housing Market Discussion Group brought together internal experts to share insights on household budgets, the lending markets and the stability of our financial system.

It hasn't met since September 8 2022.

Documents sought through the Freedom of Information (FOI) process reveal the most recent meeting of the group — also known as the Domestic Housing Community Meeting — was one day after the central bank hiked interest rates for a fifth time.

Successive governments that failed to build social housing whilst selling off social housing stock are partly to blame for this.

So, too, are the actions of some unscrupulous landlords.

But the real problem can be laid fairly and squarely at the door of the Bank of England. They forced interest rates up without any evidence that doing so would reduce inflation. So far, the contrary is likely to be the case. And now they are using quantitative tightening to keep those rates artificially high - and well above those that markets might otherwise settle on given the state of the economy.

The result is not just a cost of living crisis.

Nor is it just a massive decline in the financial well-being of millions in this country.

It is also an alarming hike in rents, which are, however, insufficient to cover the costs of some highly-geared (over-borrowed) landlords who are selling their properties as quickly as they can, so increasing the scale of homelessness and disruption, whilst also removing property from the rental housing stock, at least temporarily. It's a perfect storm for the councils involved, and it can only get worse since it is the policy of the Bank of England to maintain high interest rates as inflation declines, which can only make rents increasingly unaffordable whilst forcing more landlords out of business.