Housing price stimulation only reinforces inequality February 19, 2021 â 12.05am Save Normal text size Credit:The Age The governmentâs insistence on doing everything possible to stimulate housing prices certainly bolsters its electoral chances but, in the process, it is accentuating and cementing inequality (âHow to stop the house price madnessâ, February 18). Clearly, those homeowners who own their homes outright and have good income are able to help their children enter the housing market. On the other side, an increasing proportion of low-income households are being locked out of homeownership and are being forced into becoming life-long private renters with all the attendant insecurity and anxiety. Alternatively, they are purchasing homes which they can ill-afford and spending a considerable proportion of their income on servicing the mortgage. According to the ABS, at least a million low-income households were in housing stress (spending more than 30 per cent of gross household income on housing) in 2017-18. The governmentâs housing policy needs to be urgently revised if we are to have any hope of moving towards a more equitable and just society.