Alan Kohler

But on the psychology, you need to change the way Australians think about housing from being an investment class and, in fact, the best investment class and the way to build wealth to being just somewhere to live.

And that all changed in 2000 with the capital gains tax discount, I argue.

I mean, it's impossible to be definitive about this and to show it clearly in data or something, but...

Obviously what happened was the house prices started rising at twice the rate of incomes from the year 2000.

And I think that was because people changed the way they thought about housing because of the way that the capital gains tax discount added to negative gearing and everyone saw it, well, this is a fantastic investment and off we go.

So I do think that, you know, that's a precondition to changing housing.

the psychology around housing, which they're now in the process of doing.

I mean, yeah, anyway.

Well, look, who knows?

It is impossible to know, but it's worth, you know, you've got to do it is what I'm saying.

I mean, people like Chris Richardson and other economists say, well, it

The change to the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing will make X percent difference to the calculation on the return from housing.

You know, it's like 3 percent or 4 percent, not much, right?

And I think that obviously that's true.

They've calculated that.

But it's much more than simply that.

This has to change the way we think about housing.

But I actually think that the only way to stop people thinking of housing as an investment asset and the best investment asset is for it to not be a good investment over a long time, like it'll take 10 years.

As long as it's not a good investment for 10 years, then we'll stop thinking about it like that.

When I first started going to budget lockups 46 years ago, he says coughing, the bloke who was my sort of boss and mentor at the time, Bob Gutliebsen, he taught me how to do it.