For the first time in 25 years, an Australian government actually did something about housing based on the idea that the only way to make houses more affordable is for house prices to fall. They stopped pretending there was another way.

For years, politicians liked to talk about how, if incomes rise faster than house prices, housing becomes more “affordable”.

But let’s cut through all the shrubbery.

When the median house price in Sydney at the end of last year was $1.56m – that’s $605,000 (63%) higher than it was in the middle of 2020 – getting income to rise a bit faster than prices was not going to do much at all.

Prices needed to fall.

The way the market was set up was just helping those with property and those making stonks of money lending out ever larger mortgages. There’s a reason why Commonwealth Bank yesterday reported a bumper $10.9bn profit for 2025-26 (up 7%) and yet was warning things might not be so good for 2026-27.

And that’s because, after three interest rate rises and a government finally willing to undo the damage of the 50% capital gains tax (CGT) discount and negative gearing, prices have actually begun to fall.

It speaks to just how pathetic every attempt since 2000 to address the decline in housing........

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