Regulations Forcing Australians to Buy the ‘BMW’ Equivalent of a House: Think Tank Director

Australians are forced into buying “the housing equivalent of a BMW” because of excessive regulation, says Graham Young, executive director of the Australian Institute for Progress (AIP) think tank. He criticised the National Construction Code (NCC)—which mandates the country’s home building requirements—leading to extra costs for new housing. “People should be able to buy a basic house and retrofit comfort at their own convenience,” Young told The Epoch Times. He highlighted that mandated features like 7-star energy efficiency, double-glazed windows, and accessibility features unnecessarily add more than 10 percent to the cost of new homes. This, he argues, is pricing out average Australians from homeownership....