There’s a lot of blame to go around here:

• A string of governments going back 30+ years cooking the housing market via investment opportunities/tax breaks.
• Rental market being an absolute shitshow due to the above.
• Some dickhead at the RBA, the group that sets cash interest rates, saying in 2021 that interest rate rises weren’t going to happen for a fair while and then 6 months later ratcheting up the rates.
• People taking 2.05 percent variable rate loans during that time for the maximum they can when a simple chart of mortgage interest rates over the last 40 years would suggest that budgeting for a 6-10 percent mortgage would be a good idea.
• Banks, mortgage brokers, etc, all pushing for - and allowing - people to get the biggest mortgage they can handle right now.
• The warped Australian dream of getting the biggest house you can and living the best life you can with the best cars and toys, pushed by advertising from corporations.
• And then we get to quasi-monopolistic companies that get between the consumer and basic goods and services, cranking up the margins to provide maximum return to investors. That’s Coles/Woolies/banks/telcos/power companies/Ampol/Caltex/etc.

The whole thing is a pressure cooker designed to get as much as possible out of the general public.