Getting into the property market is a bit like trying to join a Monopoly game halfway through writes Jessica Brady.

The past few years have brought noise and headlines dissecting the nail-biting roller-coaster ride that is interest rate changes.

There is nothing quite like it to spark fiery debates and divide between generations battling it out in the contest of who had it harder.

But what if we looked beyond the spats of buying that daily latte, the avo on toast, and even beyond interest rates, and discussed the real culprit – which is responsible for fewer and fewer young people having a fighting chance at buying a home.

It’s not an interest rate problem.

It’s a house price problem.

Every time the Reserve Bank meets, mortgage-holders brace for another blow. But we’re not talking about why – we’re just telling people to “tighten their belts to fix inflation”.

Isn’t it time to stop gaslighting a generation and face the reality: The property-purchasing game has fundamentally changed.

It’s like you’ve joined a long-running Monopoly game. You’re starting out with nothing while everyone else has grabbed the most prestigious places, added those cute green little houses and started making bank … You’ve barely passed go, every role of the dice is expensive.

It’s time we were honest about the fact that Australia’s house-to-income multipliers are some of the highest in the world. That it requires new homeowners to sign up to a serious amount of debt. Debt that’s so heavy to begin with that even small increases can make it unbearably painful. Get whacked with a bunch of interest rate increases in quick succession (à la 2022 and 2023), and many are buckling at the knees from the sheer weight of their mortgages.

Surely it’s clear that interest rates alone are not the issue – already this year we have had two (modest) rate reductions – and people aren’t dancing in the street with fists full of spare cash ready to fritter away.

Yet young people are too often told to grin and bear it, because “that’s adulthood, kid” and you should feel that you are one of the “lucky” ones who have managed to get in. You should be overjoyed to be shouldering that giant lump of debt........

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