Australia has some of the world's costliest homes. Will scrapping tax breaks help?

Australia has some of the world's costliest homes. Will scrapping tax breaks help?7 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleTiffanie TurnbullandLana Lam,SydneyGettyAustralia's government has scrapped some tax breaks for investors in a bid to help first home owners.Sebastian Muñoz-Najar has only just finished primary school. The 13-year-old is still years away from learning how to drive. He cannot legally work. He's too young to even have a social media account.But he's already despairing about his future housing prospects.Amid near constant headlines about Australia's deepening housing crisis, the Adelaide student began worrying about what the future might look like for his generation.Armed with Google and a calculator, Sebastian was shocked to find that, if the current trajectory of house prices and wage growth continues, by the time he graduates from university the average house in his city will be 17 times his likely income."It's really sad to see how this issue is affecting the present generation's views on what Australia is - how their life should go," he told the BBC.While there's no dispute that Australia is in a housing crisis, solutions to it have divided the nation and paralysed politics for over a decade.Now the government is promising a polarising reform, scrapping lucrative tax breaks which it says will help tackle the intergenerational inequality which has come to define the market.Critics argue it could stifle the investment Australia needs to build more houses and could worsen the plight of renters. Others say the rule changes unfairly threaten the wealth they've spent their lives toiling for.But many younger Australians like Sebastian argue the social contract that hard work is rewarded has long been broken anyway.They feel they have been denied the kinds of opportunities their parents enjoyed, and hope the changes will begin rebalancing the playing field and bring housing security back in r...