This report follows the trajectories of workers of different occupations, ages, and locations to better understand how wages and housing costs vary between the cities and regions. It also identifies the migration flows within Australia occurring in response to changing locations of opportunity finding overseas immigration has offset the worker exodus from the cities

This research note quantifies the effect of stamp duty on the number of housing purchases in Australia and people moving homes.

Real wages have declined over the past 4 years in Australia, with inflation outpacing wages growth. This research note shows that reforms to address unnecessary and artificial barriers to mobility in labour and housing markets may be one of the best ways to get wages moving for Australian workers.

Stamp duty penalises homeowners that move. This note – the first in a two part series – illustrates its costs on people using data from the 2023 McKinnon Poll 'Understanding attitudes towards housing in Australia'.