When I moved to Sydney last year,one thing that helped me to settle into my new home was joining the local soccer team. Across two seasons,I made great friends and started to feel more at home.

Now,with rents in our suburb on the rise it looks like we’ll be pushed outside it. Housing market pressures could be leading to lonelier and more disconnected young Australians,with renters struggling to put down roots. Perhaps this is why the days of friendships in the local neighbourhood are seemingly gone.

There’s also little hope of avoiding the rental market altogether.

Unless we cause enough trouble next year that Santa gives us a large coal mine,a house is firmly off the cards. Our combined income gives us borrowing power of about $400,000:far short of the roughly $620,000 average unit price across Australia’s capital cities.

With so much of our income going towards rent and much of the remainder evaporating into other necessities,even saving for a deposit feels fanciful. At this rate,all the coal mines will be long retired before we escape the rent cycle.

It’s difficult not to conclude that,somewhere along the way,our country has lost sight of our spirit of giving everyone a “fair go”.

Many young people are losing hope of ever buying a house – and struggling to pay for day-to-day necessities – while Aussies who already have wealth in the form of a home or investment properties benefit from capital gains and rising rents.

Many property owners have worked hard to get where they are. Yet,it’s also true that their fortunes are a function of decades of decisions which have stymied – or,at best,failed to adequately address the shortage in – housing supply.

Zoning laws whichrestrict and delay the construction of new dwellings remain in place across much of the country. Efforts by federal and state governments to accelerate development have yet to deliver and even then,theirtargets fall short of what many believe is required. Moves to replacestamp duty with land tax for new homebuyers,which would make the allocation of housing more efficient,have been pushed back.

Negative gearing – where investors can cut their taxes if their rental income doesn’t pay the mortgage on that property – should be limited to new properties. This would help ensure the policy increases housing supply but discourages well-off Australians from gobbling up too many existing properties.

Reportedly,1 per cent of Australian taxpayers ownnearly a quarter of the country’s property investments and investment properties are about 30 per cent of Australia’s roughly 11 million private residential dwellings.

An inadequate increase in housing supply has allowed investors to squeeze out new homebuyers from homeownership,putting upward pressure on house prices as well as the rental market. And those without financial help or wealth transfer from their parents are finding it increasingly difficult to break into homeownership.

Until we accept there is a problem,some of the most vulnerable groups in our society will struggle. If we really care about giving everyone a “fair go” in Australia,there needs to be more courageous policymaking and less resistance – if not a greater push – to increase housing supply and density.

Young Australians,who have had little to no say in the policies that have led us to the housing shortage we now face,should not be left alone to suffer the consequences.

I don’t need a house handed to me. But I would like a fair go for my generation to strive for the Australian dream. At the very least,I’d like to live without the constant threat of rent hikes pushing us into financial stress and to hope that when Santa comes down our chimney next year,so will our rent.

Millie Muroi is aHerald business reporter.

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