House value figures for April show they have risen for the 15th straight month. The main reason is a lack of supply to meet strong demand for a place to live. It's spurred a new movement to address the housing affordability crisis fighting back against anti-development Nimbys those residents who say, "not in my back yard".
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00:00In a housing crisis, a new group has formed to counter the loud voices of so-called NIMBYs.
00:08Typically these groups are people who are wealthier, English speaking backgrounds, potentially
00:14retirees.
00:15Melissa Naber is a co-founder of the new Sydney YIMBY group.
00:19So what's a YIMBY?
00:20What are you hoping to achieve?
00:22A YIMBY is someone who says yes in my backyard and we are advocating for housing abundance
00:28which is we want to see good development in our existing urban areas.
00:32And the latest house price data from CoreLogic shows housing affordability isn't getting
00:37any better, with home values rising 0.6% in April, making the median national dwelling
00:43price now almost $780,000.
00:47That demand is still managing to outpace the supply of property in the market.
00:52We're seeing 30 and 40 year olds leaving the city because they can't afford to live here.
00:57Plans like this proposal in Sydney's leafy neutral bay are just the type of thing YIMBYs
01:02want more of, with a supermarket on the ground floor and apartments above, but the local
01:07council has already received hundreds of letters of opposition.
01:11Are you a NIMBY?
01:13Well I want the best in my backyard so I guess that makes me a BIMBY.
01:18Local resident and campaigner Meredith Trevelyan-Jones said she, like most locals, was in favour
01:24of good development.
01:26I think most people recognise that we need to keep investing in our built environment.
01:30I don't agree with those who simply say well yes to everything.
01:34But is increasing housing supply really the answer to the housing affordability crisis?
01:39I think we also need to look at the housing we've already got.
01:42PropTrack economist Cameron Cusher says a better solution is through tax.
01:46The way we do that is removing things like stamp duty, which discourage people from upsizing
01:53and downsizing in the market.
01:55We probably need to replace stamp duty with land tax.
01:58Some politically tough solutions to an enduring problem.