Making Better Economic Cases for Housing Policies

This document summarises a report commissioned by the New South Wales Federation of Housing Associations. This report recognises the merits of the traditional social investment arguments for housing, but its concern is different. The report argues for a new narrative for housing policy discussions that considers housing arrangements that will best sustain metropolitan economic development for the long term. Housing outcomes, including house price and rent levels, have a range of unrecognised and unmeasured effects on the economy, so that supporting housing policies is about more than social justice.