An Australian investor has warned the housing market has become the country’s “national sport”, as new data reveals cuts to controversial tax arrangements could generate $19bn over five years for social housing.

A report by Everybody’s Home, an eight-year campaign to fix Australia’s housing crisis, found savings from replacing the capital gains tax (CGT) with indexation and ending negative gearing could build between 29,000 to 42,000 public and community homes.

The funds could also be used to house between 12,000 to 17,000 people experiencing homelessness, or reduce the national median rent by about 0.7-1 per cent.

In dollar terms, that mean between $230-330 per year in savings for renters.

Everybody’s Home spokeswoman Maly Azize said next week’s federal budget was a once-in-a-generation chance to “make housing work for all Australians”.

“Ending these tax handouts will help make housing more fair and affordable, but tax reform is only one part of the answer,” she said.

“Pair it with serious investment in public and community housing and you’ve got a real solution that houses the people who need it most and drives down rents for all renters.

“If governments put the savings into public and community homes, the benefits are even greater.

“There will be more homes, fewer people experiencing homelessness, and faster relief for renters.”

The government is widely understood to be considering paring back the CGT.

The levy is applied after selling items like shares or property, and is part of a person’s annual income tax.

A discount of 50 per cent is given if someone has held the asset for more than a year and a person’s main residential property is exempt.

Investor Amanda Isherwood supports changes to the CGT and negative gearing, and said any savings should be invested in more public housing.

Ms Isherwood currently owns four properties in Victoria and used to have properties which were negatively geared.

“As property prices have risen, all of us are paying heaps more capital gains tax and do I want to pay more? No I do not,” she said.

“However, I have a view that as a citizen of this country our taxes should benefit us as a nation.”

Ms Isherwood said a number of her colleagues in the industry supported an ethical approach to renting.

She said any windfall from a slashing to the CGT should go into funding more public housing,

“We use very crude one-line statistics like what are the interest rates this week and has the housing gone up this week,” Ms Isherwood said.

“It’s clickbait, it’s gambling. It is our national sport … It’s like looking at the footy scores every weekend.

“I know how important housing is. It’s not just a matter of keeping out the rain and the cold and having an address for your male to come to. It is the foundation for all of us: it’s our health, our wealth, our happiness, our family.

“I feel like our national discourse around housing is very flippant and it does treat it like gambling. It’s not a game of two up, it’s about people’s lives.”

Lea, a rentvestor with a property in Sydney, also backed changes to the CGT and negative gearing arrangements.

Aged in her 30s, Lea, who did not give her surname out of privacy concerns, purchased a property, but rents to be closer to the city.

“I feel it personally as a renter whenever the rent is increased and there’s a sense of, I guess, feeling like my living situation is always under threat of a rent increase because it keeps going up,” she said.

“When is it going to go up too far where I have to move further away and have to uproot myself.

“There’s anxiety around how long can I stay here, especially when I’m starting to feel like I’m at home and starting to get to know my neighbours.”

Lea said she had resisted raising the rent in her property for more than a year.

“But, I know that the housing crisis will not be solved by like my own goodwill alone,” she said.

Lea said she had seen the “devastating damage” done by negative gearing and the GGT.

“It hasn’t been good for Australia, it’s been going on for way too long, and it’s made the housing crisis worse,” she said.

“It’s just not sustainable and I think it also incentivises like the wrong behaviours.”

Lea also urged the government to invest in a diverse mix of housing options, including social and community housing.

“I understand how important it is to have secure and independent living conditions,” she said.

“Particularly if you’re escaping violence, you need to be able to have a place that you can call home.”