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The ACT government owns all land (all ACT land is lease-hold, not free-hold), and keeps land prices artificially high by refusing to release more land for people to use (apparently affordable housing is a bad idea). It seems like a peculiar land arrangement that we have here in the ACT. Can you speculate on the size of the effect that land release and restrictive building regulations have on the price of housing? Mises said, towards the end of his book "Planning for Freedom" (1952), "At least fifty per cent of the voters are women, most of them housewives or prospective housewives. To the common sense of these women a program of low prices will make a strong appeal. They will certainly cast their ballot for candidates who proclaim: Do away peremptorily with all policies and measures destined to enhance prices above the height of the unhampered market!... What we want is low prices." That is a nice appeal libertarians may make to utilitarians for lower prices for household goods and appliances, but with a relatively high proportion of home-ownership in Australia there is strong interest from the electorate to drive up land and housing prices. Do you think, Strawman, that our legislators and regulators will permit us more freedom to develop our land as we wish? Perhaps public concern about rising house prices really could be used to highlight the damage done when government interferes with private property? Regards, David Pinkerton
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