Young Aussies Are Spitting Chips After Tonight’s ‘Four Corners’ On Housing

Good Lord, Australian Twitter worked itself into a tizzy after the trailer for tonight’s episode of Four Corners emerged. 

While the cornerstone of Australian current affairs programming isn’t usually capable of unearthing such Millennial ire, tonight’s ep – entitled Home Truths – focused on the housing market and how we’re, well, not even close to being a part of it.  

And the trailer featured these characters, as they described their home-ownership plight:

If you’re feeling a sudden, involuntary twitch around your eyes after seeing that, take heart in the knowledge you’re certainly not alone:

And that’s just at the bleedin’ trailer.

Well, gang, we are here to report that the full program didn’t stoop to that level of terrifyingly oblivious BS. It went lower, and harder, and it was absolutely harrowing. 

The program followed young first homebuyer Jules McKendry, who has saved an objectively massive $150,000 with her partner at the age of 25. She admitted bidding on at least 20 properties, and losing each and every one of ’em. 

And she swore it wasn’t other homebuyers who she was competing against, but investors who were looking to – of course – take advantage of negative gearing and tax concessions to put the property to work. Investors who also took massive loans to buy those properties, under the assumption prices would always rise. 

Well, the program compared our income-to-house price ratio to other nations before their housing markets crashed under the weight of that debt. The ratio was at 8x in Ireland; 5x in America; but 9.7x and 12.2x in Melbourne and Sydney, respectively. 
So, we’re damned if we do: buying RN will likely strap us to absolutely ridic mortgages. We’re damned if we don’t, too: if we don’t keep feeding the market and it corrects itself, as analysts are sure it will, it’ll wreak havoc on the entire economy – including the careers of, well, us. 

It’s enough to make you think maybe, just maybe, it’s not just young people having a whinge, hey.  Understandably, there were rallies behind that sentiment:

Blimey. Watch the whole thing here. If you’re even remotely curious as to what it takes to bust into this market right now – you probably should. 

Source: Four Corners / ABC. 
Photo: Four Corners / ABC. 

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