A parliamentary report into home supplies in Australia agrees, finding all levels of government need to fix the housing affordability problem.
Report author, Jason Falinski, says Australian house prices are a key issue for the upcoming federal election.
"Sydney and Melbourne are now in the top five least affordable housing markets in the world. This report makes it clear, that we can keep talking about taxes, or we can try and solve the problem by increasing supply. Because at the very heart of this nation is a dream that each of us gets to own their own home."
One of the report's key findings centres on the need to increase urban density in Australian cities. It also calls for local and state governments to deliver more affordable dwellings and emergency housing.
And, for first home buyers to be allowed to use their superannuation assets as security for home loans.
The report also recommends ditching stamp duty and replacing it with a broad-based land tax.
But some economists, like Saule Eslake, believe this doesn't go far enough.
"In my view they ought to abolish negative gearing and reduce the capital gains tax discount for property and other investors and in my view that would reduce the competition which would-be homebuyers face from investors every time they seek to purchase a home for their own, because property investors in effect get their interest expenses subsidised through the tax system in a way that prospective home purchasers don't."
