“This can’t go on” – reports the Canberra Times.
Home-building costs are moving the price of houses beyond the means of the average purchaser.
A home sold a dozen years ago has seen an increase in value of 209 per cent.
As a generally accepted though unproven safe economic limit, the average home purchaser should spend no more than 2.5 times their average annual earnings on a home.
As such, only a man with an above average salary can purchase a medium-sized dwelling.
The current situation is leading to a lopsided economy.
The country finds itself in a serious situation.
It can’t go on…
Source: Canberra Times, 2 August 1950.
The article goes on to discuss the rent controls that were in place in Australia until the mid-1950s, with properties falling into decay since rent returns were too low to encourage investors to repair them.
Laments the Canberra Times, the system has spent a decade cutting down tall poppies instead of encouraging the “short buds” to flower by means of self-help.
Advantages should be “weighted to the thrifty, instead of the unthrifty”.
Basically the 1950s version of avocadogate with archaic language.
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