No home sweet home?

Housing is a basic human need. But in a host of nations, Britain, Australia, and Canada among them, people are facing low vacancy rates, rising rents, and decreasing affordability. The housing issue is a social crisis that is quickly becoming a political crisis. However, this crisis presents a political opportunity and should become a policy priority for conservative parties.

Take Australia as an example. In Australia’s major cities, rental vacancies are at record lows. In Queensland, people are struggling to find accommodation and are resorting to living in tent cities, caravan parks, and motels while they join massive queues to apply for overpriced rental properties. Sydney-siders are having to overcome outrageous prices, some of the highest in the world, if they want to enter the housing market. Those who don’t have this option face massive waits and sky-rocketing rents.

Canada’s housing woes are similar. Vacancy rates in Montreal and Vancouver sit at around 1 percent, and are slightly higher in Toronto. People are resorting to housing normally used for family camping trips, rather than face paying for unaffordable apartments that even squeeze middle-income earners. In the United Kingdom, the demand for government subsidized housing indicates a lack of affordability that combines with a decades-long supply-side crisis.

The common problem across each of these jurisdictions is affordability. When people can no longer find or afford rental accommodation, the social fabric is a big step closer to disintegration. People need a roof over their heads and a place to retreat, rest, and care for their near and dear.

But a deeper problem lies in declining home ownership. Young people are being priced out of the housing market across the Anglophone West. In Australia, it will take someone over a decade to save a house deposit before they can apply for a loan. Even then, their savings might be outstripped by the runaway market.

Canada and the United Kingdom evidence similar property market dynamics. In Australia and Canada, an average home costs over seven times the average income. All three countries have high immigration and low housing supply, increasing rent and property prices. High rents make saving the necessary loan deposit extremely difficult, whilst a decade of low-interest rates has made life easier for those already in the market, be they investors or owner-occupiers.

While this dynamic impacts people across all generations, it especially affects young people. This is a big problem for center-right political parties, who need to capture this generation of voters to ensure they have a future. Why would anyone vote for a party that argues for free markets when the markets are geared against you? How can a party that argues for personal responsibility and individual economic independence attract a voter faced with a future of neo-feudal economic dependence?

Solving the housing crisis could provide conservative parties in the Anglophone world with a voting base for generations. This moment presents a genuine opportunity for conservative-leaning parties. Good housing policy is good politics for conservative parties.

Voters that own property are more likely to vote conservative. After all, they have something to conserve, something to pass on to their children, a little piece of heaven that is really theirs. If they can attain this, they are more likely to vote to the right. But only if center-right parties can help them.

Fixing the affordability problem is fraught with complications, but two answers lie well within the purview of conservative policy. One is to reduce immigration. High immigration puts enormous pressure on the cost of living, and housing is one of the first things to increase. Reducing immigration will help all citizens, particularly young people, to save for, and pay for, their own home.

A second policy solution relates to regulating property investors, including overseas investors. Money spent by people with no intention of living in the dwelling pushes rental and property prices beyond the reach of normal people. Finding a regulatory mechanism that can prioritize local, owner-occupiers will help keep the market within the reach of real people who need homes.

Good housing policy is also good for people. The Bible depicts an ideal condition in which everyone can “sit under their own vine” in security and repose (Micah 4:4). This vision will not be fully realized in this life, but good housing policy can help people reach towards the ideal it shows us. Secure housing and property ownership offer a tangible opportunity for people to achieve financial and practical security.

Those who can buy their own plot of land, build their own home, plant their own trees, cut their own lawn, and raise their family there, truly have something to conserve. They invest in their local communities, join local churches, and are in a better position to give charitably and not be dependent on the government.

This is good politics for conservative-leaning parties. Increasingly, big business is not the friend of the center-right. The new core needs to be the working middle class, and that class needs to be empowered to avoid a neo-feudal future through policies that encourage economic independence through home ownership.

And make no mistake—all of these issues are just as relevant in the United States. Home ownership and conservative worldviews tend to go together, and a crisis in housing points to a larger crisis in the culture.