The Great Housing Hijack (Cameron K Murray, A&U)

Instead of your typical dense economics book, The Great Housing Hijack: The hoaxes and myths keeping prices high for renters and buyers in Australia uses a compelling narrative with analogies, hypotheses, and a mix of historical and current realities to point out that the housing affordability problem is much older than we think it is. Author and expert housing commentator Cameron K Murray debunks the myths and lies preventing Australians from further understanding how property markets really work. He warns us against believing everything we hear from what he calls the Housing Cheer Squad—investors, politicians, real estate agents and the media. The book effectively uses a Monopoly analogy to highlight the drawbacks of letting property markets operate unchecked, addressing issues like concentrated house ownership and high prices. It dispels the notion of envying older generations for paying lower rent, revealing how Australia’s housing policies have strayed from their post–World War II ideals—the so-called ‘Golden Age’ of housing. Murray’s analysis offers valuable insights into the complexities of housing policies and their generational impacts. The final chapters reconsider the nature of property rights and propose forward-thinking policies for tackling housing price issues, including revising the government’s role in the sector. The Great Housing Hijack will appeal to anyone who wants to understand why house prices and rents are so high in Australia and what can be done about it.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Nadia Heisler is an emerging writer with a background in Journalism and Human Resources Management. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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