Delivering broader access to decent, affordable housing is a wicked problem – a seemingly intractable challenge that has incubated in a political space. There are numerous competing explanations of the housing cost crisis and each explanation reveals a particular political leaning and a preference for either incremental action (aimed at protecting the status quo) or deeper structural change, which would be difficult to achieve given that the housing crisis is differently experienced depending on the market position of particular groups and actors (generating divergent self-interest). This chapter unpacks the nature of the housing crisis as a wicked problem, showing how and why remedies are highly contested and single actions are unlikely to deliver the fundamental change that is needed – largely because housing has become the centre of economic gravity in many countries, owing to the financialisation of land and housing and increased reliance on asset sheet growth, as a substitute for productivity growth.
