The government spent 40 years telling Boomers that investing in property was “Safe as houses”, so lots of them have multiple properties. Also: They allowed foreign ownership, so we have international investors buying homes here where their assets are safe.

All this is true, but the more critical reasons are the capital gains discount and negative gearing.

[–] dgriffith@aussie.zone 4 points 2 months ago

It was semi necessary at the time, there is a window of boomers who have very little super as the majority of their working life was before mandatory super requirements got to useful levels.

So - get them into cheap investment property with negative gearing and CG discounts, let them build up equity, sell the family home/pay off mortgage when reaching retirement, use the cash and investment property to live a better life than just the pension.

It's not particularly necessary now, but we've let that horse well and truly bolt and every man+dog is into investment property now.