Excuse me while I let out a long sigh of frustration.

Australia’s housing policy has for so very long been about making the problem worse by juicing up demand. This is undeniable. The evidence is long and clear.

Whether it be the 50% capital gains tax discount John Howard introduced in 1999, the continuation of negative gearing, or the use of first home buyer grants, government policies have overwhelmingly ensured more people are bidding for houses at auctions.

But, as everyone knows, the more people bidding for a property, the higher the price goes.

The government’s latest housing brain flub was the 5% deposit guarantee for first home buyers. Last year, I suggested it was set to be yet another miserable policy failure.

And now the evidence is in.

The lending figures released on Tuesday for the December quarter of last year cover the first three months of the deposit guarantee. In that quarter the number of people taking out first home buyer home loans rose 6.8% – the biggest one-quarter jump for two years.

But it wasn’t a record, and certainly nothing like what we saw during the global financial crisis or pandemic years when the government went........

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