> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://goodoil.news/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Well, It’s a Record, I Guess - URL: https://goodoil.news/well-its-a-record-i-guess/ - Published: 2026-11-13T01:30:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-13T01:29:59.000Z - Description: The worst housing collapse in Australia’s history is not exactly something to brag about. - Author: Lushington Brady - Tags: AUS Politics, Economy As *Good Oil* readers will know from bitter experience, when socialist governments start bleating about ‘fairness’ and meddling in the housing market, you’re gonna have a bad time. Under the Ardern regime, housing affordability deteriorated badly, rents went up as investors fled punishing tax changes and almost none of the promised KiwiBuild houses appeared (and certainly never delivered for poorer New Zealanders). New Zealand got off lightly. The Albanese government has torched the Australian housing market. As socialists will, they’ve talked a big game about ‘fairness’ and ‘intergenerational equity’. As reality will, it’s bitten – and bitten hard. The government has locked out aspiring first homebuyers harder than ever and belted new owners with negative equity, while driving out investors and sending rents through the roof. And that’s just in the first few months after **Jim Chalmers**’ much-trumpeted changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing. It’s going to get a lot worse. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has now confirmed the scale of the wreckage. New mortgages for first-home buyers fell 8.6 per cent in the three months to September, after already dropping 2.9 per cent the previous quarter. Investor loans collapsed by nearly a third. All home loans were down 15 per cent in the third quarter, taking the calendar-year decline to 26 per cent – driven by a 43 per cent crash in investor commitments and a 16 per cent fall for first-home buyers. The number of young Australians taking out a mortgage to buy their first home has now fallen for three consecutive quarters and hit its lowest level in almost four years. **Mark Bouris**, whose firm is the country’s third-largest mortgage aggregator, says the official figures understate the disaster. > [“The flow of new loans](https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/housing-collapse-deepens-as-firsthomebuyers-and-investors-flee-falling-market/news-story/5b4e6468f213e78178321520347ae955?ref=goodoil.news) is actually close to zero,” Mr Bouris said. “It’s mostly just refinancing. Any new lending virtually doesn’t exist. This will be the longest downturn in our history. I think Jim Chalmers has put himself in a trap. Unless he walks the tax changes back like (former Labor treasurer Paul) Keating did in the 1980s, then we’re going to have a serious structural hit to people’s wealth.” The Albanese government, of course, never takes responsibility for any of its disasters. It’s always everybody else’s fault their grand socialist plans go tits-up. In this case, they’re trying to ping the Reserve Bank. Reserve Bank Governor **Michele Bullock** ain’t buying it, nor are Australians: just five per cent in a recent poll blamed the Reserve Bank. The bank’s head of economic analysis, **Michael Plumb**, told property developers in a closed-door briefing that Labor’s tax changes are the decisive factor. > “The fact that investors have declined so much further than … in previous interest rate increasing cycles suggests that there’s something else going on here and … something else going on is the tax changes,” Ms Bullock said. Chalmers and Housing Minister **Clare O’Neil** nevertheless insist the reforms are working as intended. They blame rates and ‘global economic uncertainty’ while claiming the collapse in lending is a sign of success. > “Because of our reforms, first-home buyers will have to compete less with established investors for limited existing housing stock, and we’re starting to see that in this data,” Dr Chalmers said. He’s either lying through his teeth or just stupid (it’s a coin-toss on that one), because the data plainly says otherwise. New loan commitments have plummeted across the board: first home owner-occupiers by nearly 50 per cent and investors by just under 40 per cent. Cotality reports national home values down 6.7 per cent in October from their March peak, a faster collapse than any downturn in the past 40 years. But Chalmers is a model of wisdom and honesty in comparison to some of his cabinet colleagues. > [Employment Minister](https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics-latest-anthony-albanese-chris-bowen-demand-climate-action-as-paris-goal-perishes/live-coverage/762ece808442e5345d788341bd5351a4?ref=goodoil.news#/entry/18274414) **Amanda Rishworth** insists a 30 per cent quarterly collapse in new investor home loans is a “good thing”, while denying declines in lending to owner-occupiers and first home buyers resulted from Labor’s budget tax changes. Words fail me. Master Builders Australia’s **Denita Wawn** called the latest numbers “only the start”. Commonwealth Bank economists do not expect the trough in lending to bottom out until late 2027\. ABS head of finance statistics **Misha Tan** noted that investor activity is being driven by factors beyond rising rates, including the tax changes and expectations of further price falls. Property Council chief executive **Mike Zorbas** was blunter still. > [“Tell ’em they’re dreaming.](https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/housing-collapse-deepens-as-firsthomebuyers-and-investors-flee-falling-market/news-story/5b4e6468f213e78178321520347ae955?ref=goodoil.news) Who does the Albanese government think is going to finance new home construction, including the rental homes Australians need?” Maybe Chalmers can ask the Greens to kindly ask the fairies at the bottom of the garden. --- 💡 ****If you enjoyed this article please share it using the share buttons at the top or bottom of the article.**