Housing affordability is easily one of the most hotly-contested issues in Australia today.
But when it comes to the major parties, there is little daylight between the two on their stance on the ideal path forward for housing prices.
Both the Coalition and Labor hold the view that housing prices should continue to head higher.
Recent figures from pollster Resolve reveal that the Australian people hold quite a different view.
But as we’ll explore later in the article, opinions vary dramatically when it comes to what voters want to happen to the price of their own homes.
At face value, Australians overwhelmingly want lower housing prices, with 61 per cent holding that view, compared with 9 per cent who hold the opposing position.
In something of a twist, the equal most supportive group of lower housing prices polled was
property investors, with 66 per cent believing the right path forward was lower prices, compared with 12 per cent who disagreed.
Overall, a majority in each assessed demographic by income, housing tenure and age all held the view that lower housing prices were the preferred outcome.
All in all, a pretty resounding victory for lower housing prices.
But Resolve took the analysis an important step further, asking respondents: “would your preference for house prices, including your own home, be…?”
It’s here that opposition to falling housing prices rises more than threefold, from 9 per cent when it was an abstract question to 38 per cent who wanted prices to rise or stay the same when it came to the value of their own properties.
It’s worth noting that this figure encompasses a high proportion of people who were undecided. If these individuals were removed from the equation, the proportion of respondents opposing housing price falls rises to almost half (46.9 per cent).
On the other hand, the group most supportive of prices falling is perhaps unsurprisingly renters, with 47 per cent wanting lower prices.
The least supportive of falling prices by housing tenure was outright homeowners, with 47 per cent wanting prices to rise or stay the same.
Overall, just 20 per cent of respondents supported price falls of 10 per cent or more.
If a 10 per cent drop was to be realised, it would take dwelling prices back to where they were nationally in February 2025, for the capital cities in July 2024 and for the regions where they were in June 2025.
The takeaway
It’s clear to a large majority of Australians that the right path forward for the country is lower housing prices. That has been confirmed by the aforementioned figures from Resolve and recent polling from YouGov.
But when push comes to shove and it’s the value of people’s own homes and investment properties on the line, all of a sudden, the issue becomes a much more close-run thing.
At an overall level, just 43 per cent of Australians support lower housing prices if it means the value of their home (if they possess one) falls.
Meanwhile, just 28 per cent of Australians support housing price falls in excess of 4 per cent.
If a 4 per cent fall in prices was to be realised from the peak under the auctioneer’s hammer, this would take national and capital city dwelling prices only back to where they were in October last year. In the regions it would take dwelling prices back to where they were in January.
While it’s clear that high housing prices have played a major role in delivering subpar economic outcomes for a majority of households in the post-mining boom era, the data suggests Australian people are not especially ready to part with them.
From a political perspective, further polling is arguably needed. Many Australians may prefer higher home prices, but how strongly this view is actually held is another question.
When Kiwis were confronted with housing prices down almost 20 per cent in 2023, only 17 per cent expressed concern at falling prices, 48 per cent felt neutral and 32 per cent said it made them optimistic.
Going forward, housing prices are set to again be one of the defining variables of our time, playing a significant role in everything from productivity growth rates to how real wages will unfold.
With these stakes come the need for soul searching for the Australian people, where we increasingly need to collectively ask ourselves, what are we willing to give up to keep housing prices high – or perhaps somewhat more accurately, to keep our own home prices high?
Tarric Brooker is a freelance writer