This paper examines whether the employment outcomes of Australian labour market programme participants vary according to whether they receive housing assistance. This issue attracted attention when a series of US studies showed that clients of welfare-to-work programmes are more likely to...

During the early 2000s, mortgage market innovation together with home price appreciation increased the scope for mortgage equity withdrawal. From a macroeconomic perspective, this proved to be an important transmission mechanism for the wealth (particularly collateral) effects of housing....

Since the deregulation of Australian Housing Finance interest rates in early 1986 the market has determined the rate prospective home buyers must meet for their loans. Deregulation has brought higher interest rates and considerable public discussion concerning the plight of home buyers and these...

Domestic residential property taxes can be viewed as a substitute for a tax on personal wealth. This paper measures the formal distributional characteristics of residential property taxes in Australia with respect to the net wealth of home-owners, and the net wealth of all households in the...

The tax treatment of housing can have important implications for the relative attractiveness of investment in housing. The tax regime for private landlords in Britain appears to be less favourable than in many other advanced welfare states, including Australia, where negative gearing is commonly...

This paper examines factors influencing Australian landlords’ decisions to retain their rental investments. A variety of statistical techniques are applied to uncover the factors precipitating the exit of landlords from rental housing markets. It is found that middle-aged investors are...