Rent.

Mark McIlroy

08.04.2026



What four-letter word is the foundation of civilisation?

Answer: Rent.

Rent is a process by which the poor are forced to work, in order to have a house to live in.

Landowners collect rent, without having to do work, and live a life of leisure while also operating the political system in order to keep the entire system functioning as it is.

There are some advantages to this system. It has enabled the developed countries to become very rich. I don't mean in terms of currency, I mean in terms of housing, roads, schools, hospitals and food production.

However it's not such a great deal for the people at the bottom of the tree.

I'm not suggesting changing this system (much) because as I said it has created a civilisation where 95% of people have food and housing.

However, in order to be fair, rents should not be excessive.

In the absence of formal rent controls, the determinant of rent levels is the number of houses compared to the population. 

Australia like many Western countries is facing a rent crisis. This is due to not enough houses being built.

Excessive rents leads to social unrest, depression, homelessness, and in the extreme case suicide.

This post is a call to drastically increase the number of houses built in Australia (we probably need about two million additional houses).

This move would result in much lower rents, and less concentration of wealth which would benefit individuals and society as a whole.


2. There is a way to make this system fair. That is if rent amounts were equal to the cost of building and maintaining the house that is being rented.

However, in samples that I looked at in Australia in 2026, the rent was approximately double the fair amount.

In some cases such as concrete shells (industrial facilties, inner-city flats) the cost of the building that is supplied could be far less than the actual rent charged.