Bubbles, birthrates and booms: A conversation about Australia’s housing market

Housing affordability and the growing inequality around buying a home was one of the big issues expert speakers tackled at this year’s All-Actuaries summit.

Speakers dived into the nuances and specifics of some of the biggest challenges we face as an industry and as a society.

In this episode of the Actuaries Institute Podcast, we gathered some of the key Summit speakers who touched on this topic. This episode covers the current housing situation, affordability among the younger generation, flow-on effects such as lower fertility rates and homelessness, shifts in sentiment across industries, possible solutions to relieve affordability stress, and much more.

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Speakers:

From left, Anthony Asher, Hugh Miller and Richard Lyon.

Anthony Asher is currently a member of the Actuaries Institute Board and the Retirement Strategy Group, and the Convenor of the Retirement Incomes Working Group.

Richard Lyon is a recently retired actuary with more than 40 years’ actuarial practice under his belt – mostly in life insurance. He’s the co-editor and co-author of the textbook that teaches students about the actuarial approach to problems. Richard has served on the Institute’s Council and on many of its committees, task forces, and working groups.

Hugh Miller is a principal at Taylor Fry, where he has worked for 15 years. Over the past five years, he has been working almost exclusively in government analytics, modelling in sectors such as welfare, housing, homelessness, disability and suicide prevention. He holds a PhD in statistics, has a keen interest in actuarial research, is part of the Institute’s Public Policy Council Committee, and is also the Data Analytics Editor of Actuaries Digital

Listen to more Actuaries Institute Podcasts.

Housing affordability wasn’t the only major societal issue discussed at this year’s All-Actuaries Summit. Catch up on other debates and ideas from the Summit.

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