I can't find any reference to it on the net, but yesterday in Melbourne's free toilet paper (the MX newspaper) there was an article about some oldish news of the government floating the idea of banks giving "half house" loans. That is, rather than having to buy a whole $300,000 house, the bank will lend you half the money and buy the other half of the house. The bank will then share in any profit or loss of the house sale in the future. Best bit is that you get to move in and live there while only having to pay for half of it.

But does anyone else thing this is just going to double house prices in Melbourne and do nothing to help those who can't afford a house? Those who could only afford a $100,000 house can now afford a $200,000 house BUT those who could only afford a $300,000 house can now afford a half-million dollar house.

With most of the houses in Melbourne bought in Auction, surely people can now just bid more for a house, thus pushing up prices massively? I can't see how I can be wrong. Unless I'm missing something about how this is going to work.

Didn't the government try something like this in the 70s? And isn't that when house prices doubled? Maybe I'm making that up.