SADLY, it seems as though ‘housing crisis’ is the latest buzz word.
And not without reason, but why?
There is a plethora of reasons offered, but there are two elephants in the room that we dare not mention.
Firstly – our staggeringly high rate of divorce including the latest fad of silver separations, resulting in the doubling of the number of houses needed when a family divides.
And, secondly, greed.
Housing used to be considered a means of security and now has become a means of wealth multiplication.
Here in Gawler and in many cities, there are some huge housing blocks which could easily accommodate a ‘granny flat’ in the back yard.
The Gawler council very graciously allowed us to build such a granny flat and now the law is changing to make it much easier to do so.
Good, but many of us in retirement seem to think that whether we build a granny flat or buy another house, we are obliged to make as much profit out of it as quickly as possible.
But why? Often our children and grandchildren are financially quite well set up, there are no pockets in funeral shrouds, but we still think we must make more money for extra environmentally destructive overseas holidays and shallow consumptive lifestyles.
That means more short-term and long-term pain for others.
But what happened to philanthropy?
Why can’t we build in the backyard or rent out our properties at rates which cover all the costs without ever seeking to return the capital outlay?
Do we really have to make more ephemeral money before the sun goes down on our lives and cause more pain and misery on the lives of younger generations?
It is actually possible to do the opposite.
Anonymous, Gawler South
