Why Japan is the envy of Australia’s desperate housing planners

The scale of the challenge facing Starmer is daunting. Britain is one of several large economies in the developed world where the number of homes per capita has barely changed since 2000. However, according to data compiled by the Grattan Institute, Australia is in an even worse position, having experienced the second-biggest decline in housing stock per person aged over 20 since the turn of the millennium.

While several factors are at play, the most important one is that the national government exerts much more control over zoning and building rules than is the case in other leading economies. The planning system became more centralised in recent decades as “broad public interest in abundant housing trumped parochial housing obstructionism,” the Sightline Institute notes.

Although there can be vocal opposition to new developments from local authorities, planning and zoning rules are centralised, standardised and quite permissive. “It’s more of a free market here, one that is self-regulating,” said Zoe Ward, founder and chief executive of Japan Property Central in Tokyo.

The Grattan Institute attributes this to the “politics of land-use planning”. Older and wealthier homeowners in established suburbs have an outsize say on housing policy. With state governments and local councils responsible for planning decisions, geographically small councils which support zoning restrictions risk neglecting the needs of renters and aspiring homebuyers.

This has given rise to a vocal and increasingly assertive Yimby movement campaigning for Japanese-style abundant housing in Australia. Yimbys point to compelling evidence in Australia and abroad that supply constraints are the main cause of higher prices and rents. Yet there is still a