Crunch time: Evan Thornley on the real reason property prices are unaffordable, fixing the housing crisis and what the downturn means for agents

While everyone has an opinion on why it’s harder than ever to afford a home, almost all of them are wrong.

That’s the belief of Evan Thornley, Chief Executive at LongView, who has spent many years analysing data to track down the root cause of the current housing crisis and work out why the situation continues to get worse.

In this episode of the Elevate podcast with Elite Agent Managing Editor, Samantha McLean, Evan reveals the major driver behind the housing crisis that the economists and experts never mention and why things are not likely to get better anytime soon.

He also takes a close look at the rental crisis and shares his thoughts on what’s going on and why blaming landlords is the wrong approach.

Evan explains why more supply won’t help over the long term, the reason government intervention won’t make any difference and how we can encourage more investment into residential property.

“To fix the housing crises, we need to do some big things. We need to do them as quickly as possible and the longer they take then the sooner we need to get going and stop wishing for a magic wand from government or anybody else to fix something that took decades to mess up.” – Evan Thornley

Samantha and Evan also discuss:

• 2:17 – Evans’s journey from management consultant, to tech entrepreneur, to running a leading property management business.
• 5:38 – The big mistake most investors make that sees them miss out on big ticket capital growth.
• 6:39 – The main driver behind the housing crisis and why things are not going to get any better.
• 9:49 – The current market downturn and the future of property prices.
• 16:03 – Why supply impacts rental markets far more than property values.
• 17:26 – The reason it’s so tough to buy a home and the new way to enter the property market.
• 21:57 – What needs to happen to fix the property market in Australia.
• 29:33 – How the current crisis and downturn are likely to impact agents and agencies.

Links mentioned

LinkedIn
LongView
PEXA Whitepaper – What drives house prices in Australia?
PEXA Whitepaper – Private Renting – A Broken System