Australian Land Locked by Heritage Law Amplifies Housing Crisis

Australia’s heritage laws are worsening the country’s housing affordability crisis by protecting hundreds of thousands of low-value buildings without weighing the economic cost, according to the Centre for Independent Studies.

Vast tracts of inner-city areas are locked up by heritage restrictions, the CIS said in a report released Thursday. It reckons more than 20% of residential land within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of Sydney’s CBD is heritage protected and almost 30% of the equivalent area in Melbourne.