How housing affordability policies could shift votes at the federal election

New data show national house prices trended higher in April, and are expected to keep rising as interest rates fall.

Meanwhile, first home buyers are a much smaller voting group — Australia Bureau of Statistics lending data shows there are typically 110,000 people who succeed in becoming first home buyers each year.

"Even if you allow that, for everyone who does [get into the market], there are five or six who don`t, that is at most 750,000 votes for policies that would restrain the rate at which house prices keep going up," Mr Eslake notes.

"So, on the one hand, 750,000 votes for policies that might restrain the rate of house price inflation, but somewhere north of 12 million for policies that would keep the rate of house price inflation going up.

"Even the dumbest of our politicians can, as the Americans say, do that math. And they do it at every election."

Mr Eslake says while the major parties are "shedding crocodile tears for the difficulties faced by those young aspiring home buyers", the reality is that many of their policies will keep house prices rising.

Original article

Photo: Photo shows Aerial shot of dozens of houses in neat rows in a new outer-suburban housing estate. Source: abc.net.au.