Brisbane

You're completely delusional. Understandable, because you're invested in the delusion. The pun is free of charge. No need to pay rent on it.

The RBA's cash rate had been abnormally low, near zero, for a long time. It was abberant. I'm sure there's a reason it had been like that, and I'm sure that reasoning involved lots of America. But you people need to understand it was not, and is not, normal. It's not going back down. (At least not until the Americans drag it down again.)

The residential investor class in Australia is largely made up of amateurs being sold on hype and ideas of free money. "Stack your mortgages up on top of each other and get tennants to pay it off for you, plus profits!" The whole sector is full of jokers. And they kept on rolling in, inflating the price of housing with the banks' eagerness to finance speculation with ever cheaper money.

"But some people just won't be able to afford to buy. We're providing housing. If the big meanie banks make our loans cheaper we'll lower your rents. Pinky promise. :("

Use some logic, please, I beg of you, to at least present as a more sympathetic victim if nothing else. Why was the price of housing and rentals not going down when money was gradually getting cheaper? We've had your scenario play out already, and housing got more expensive.

Secondly, that's the banks role, not yours (to provide housing to those that can't afford the immediate outlay, in a round about way): to bring forward future expenditure. You know, to loan money. It's meant to be good for the economy.

Your role, as a landlord, is that of a parasite. Sorry, there's no glorious role here for your lot within the larger economy. From Adam Smith in the 18th century, to Henry George in the 19th, to who the fuck knows who in the 20th, to the unemployed, couchsurfer Brian in the 21st: landlords have not been seen as productive to the economy. Bearable, and injurious when too large. Never welcome. In Australia, their collective cries of "woe is me" is just... sad. A touch of pathetic, but mainly a deep sadness. A country that thought it could make nothing, and just perpetually rent out and/or flog stolen commodities.

Australia, you have a big problem. It's been decades in the making. I wish the federal government would be more visionary and lead in nation building. Its citizens don't have a fucking clue.