The price of housing

People investing in McMansions and other expensive housing for living in or resale forget their future ongoing higher costs of maintenance and cleaning than for smaller homes – all the great spaces and pale carpets, all the air-conditioning and central heating, extra because there are stairways, passages and places for different activities all linked together, without doors to keep less used places unheated or cooled. They often have unecological dark roofs, no eaves,and little garden space for rain-water to stream away, minute gardens, no room for children to play outside or drying washing in the fresh air.

The fittings are not ergonomic – the baths and basins that must be cleaned underneath, the hand-basins with shapes that don't save water, the inner-spring mattresses that must go to landfill when they start deteriorating, the chairs that cannot be mended, the stuffed sofas with leather tops that cannot be sewn again, the kitchens that look like laboratories.

Cost of McMansions for the economy includes destruction of perfectly-all-right housing in the 'right' areas to build them. They do not cause destruction of the poor housing that really needs destruction in poorer areas.

The former houses turned to rubbish with little that is recyclable. The content of skips usually goes to costly landfill – while the landfill grows at the cost of potential good housing land.

The gap between rich and poor widens, as people dealing in real estate get percentage commission which is higher on the high-priced housing, for little real work compared with most people's jobs. It might be better to have a national real estate business to compete with lower prices for people wanting houses to live in.

Far too many foreigners invest in Australian property, increasing the competition. In our local property magazine, all the staff of one well-known real estate manager have Chinese or Vietnamese names.

The eco-standard of houses should be made public at sale or lease – as stated in Greener Homes on 20 November 2011. If you buy a car, you can easily find out its fuel efficiency. But what about a house? The ongoing costs and eco-impacts of existing buildings vary widely, but it's hard for would-be buyers or renters to know what they are in for. In early 2009, state and federal governments agreed that a dwelling's energy, greenhouse and water performance should be publicised at the point of sale and lease.

Since then, however, not much has happened. The policy is known as "residential building mandatory disclosure". It could prompt a big change in household energy and water consumption. While the details have not been set, the approach is broader than the current star ratings. As well as the building fabric, it is likely to cover heating, cooling and hot water systems, together with lighting, clothes drying, rainwater tanks and water fittings, and a list of recommended upgrades.

'On an inflation and quality-adjusted basis, house prices in Australia have increased by around 2-3% per annum since 1970. This is enough to yield a doubling in real house prices every 30 years or so, underpinning a long-term decline in housing affordability and the homeownership rate.'

What can be done?

The increase in price between the last sale and the next is often more than the stamp duty, and does not go to the state.

Stop encouraging investors in property, that increases the demand (and keep population growth down too). Encourage investment in the industries we need. Stop negative gearing.

We could have a nationalized estate agency, like Medicare Private in competition with private business, that took less than the high percentage of the selling price of property that private estate agents take. Private estate agents are on the side of the sellers not the buyers, since it is in their interests to do so.

The tremendous profits that people have made recently selling properties make it desirable that housing be sold at no more than 105% of the previous price, or some similar strategy to prevent continual spiraling of prices. This risks abuses with people pretending to be other people, so they can resell, but could have an effect.

Could the government prevent investment in real estate for re-sale instead of in the industries that we need, prevent the suffering of those who lose their homes through the swings in prices of real estate. prevent the situation of paying for your home a good slice of income all your life, and prevent the accumulation of property a major way to become a billionaire?