In the 1950s a house cost about three times the annual average wage. Today it’s more like eight times. The political fall-out from this housing affordability crisis is gathering momentum.

Voters under 40 now outnumber “Boomers”, threatening to change the electoral arithmetic. With these storm clouds on the horizon, Labor and Liberal have been desperate to assure younger voters that there is a path to home ownership.

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The Coalition proposes to allow new home buyers a tax deduction on interest payments, in addition to allowing them to access their superannuation to service a mortgage.

Labor’s new policy, the First Home Buyers Guarantee, allows first house buyers to access a loan with only a 5% deposit with the government stepping in as guarantor for the rest of the deposit plus it continues its Help to Buy scheme, in which it takes a share in the property.

As economists have explained, like any market subsidy without an enforced........

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