City Road Podcast

Australian cities are awash with construction activity. From Collingwood to Kogarah, Marrickville to Newstead, every passing month seems to bring with it a new, sold-off-the-plan high-rise apartment tower. Real estate, it seems, is the true national sport. Australia now hosts the world’s most active market for securitised home loans and has the world’s second highest, and rising, levels of household debt. There are reportedly more cranes in the east coast capital cities than all of North America. And with the cranes and high-rise towers, come social problems and no respite from affordability crises: overcrowded schools, longer working hours to pay off mortgages, and worsening homelessness. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that in recent polls, densification and housing affordability are among the issues of most concern to Australian voters. In this City Road episode, Alistair, Dallas and Chris revisit Maurice Daly’s classic 1982 book, Sydney Boom, Sydney Bust. Daly’s insights remain highly relevant to Austr