How Life Experience Shapes Political Values and Housing Policy
Housing affordability in Victoria is not only an economic issue. It affects how young people imagine their future, from finding meaningful work and building a career to getting married, buying a home and creating financial security for their families.
In this conversation, host Dev Singh asks Xavier Boffa how education, professional opportunity and home ownership helped shape his political views. Xavier reflects on being the first person in his family to attend university, choosing an unconventional career in the non-profit sector and saving with his wife for many years before buying their first home. Their discussion then moves to Victoria’s housing challenges, including construction costs, taxation, regulation and the responsibilities shared by state and federal governments. At its heart, the conversation is about opportunity, accountability and whether hard work still delivers a fair reward.
A conversation between Dev Singh and Xavier Boffa on opportunity, housing affordability and political responsibility.
How Did Education Shape Xavier Boffa’s Political Views?
Dev Singh: How did your experiences as a university graduate, jobseeker and young person trying to establish a life shape your political opinions?
Xavier Boffa: Xavier describes himself as fortunate to have entered adulthood when education, employment and home ownership were still more achievable than they appear to be for many young people today.
He was the first person in his family to attend university and studied law at the University of Melbourne. The opportunity allowed him to pursue something he cared about while seeing a connection between hard work and reward.
That relationship between effort and opportunity became important to his political thinking. For Xavier, people should have a reasonable chance to improve their lives through education, employment, saving and personal responsibility.
His concern is that these milestones are becoming harder to reach. Young Australians may work hard but still struggle to find secure employment, enter the property market or create a financial foundation for their families.
That experience motivates his interest in policies that protect opportunity and reward effort.
Why Did Xavier Boffa Choose Non-Profit Leadership Over Commercial Law?
Dev Singh: How did your career move from studying law to leading a non-profit organisation?
Xavier Boffa: After completing his law degree, Xavier expected to follow a commercial legal career. His direction changed when Stuart Wood, whom he describes as an important mentor, offered him the opportunity to lead an organisation with which he had already been involved.
Running a non-profit was not the career Xavier imagined when he began studying law. However, it gave him responsibility and a sense of agency at a relatively young age.
He was able to build a team, guide the organisation’s direction and establish its research agenda. These responsibilities made the work personally fulfilling and allowed him to see how leadership could influence public conversations.
The experience also demonstrated the value of mentors who recognise potential and create opportunities for younger people.
Rather than following the most conventional path, Xavier found a role that combined his legal education with leadership, research and public policy. That journey became another influence on how he understands responsibility and community service.
How Did Buying a First Home Influence His Political Priorities?
Dev Singh: How did employment, marriage and buying a home influence your understanding of public policy?
Xavier Boffa: A good job after university allowed Xavier to begin building financial security. He and his wife saved diligently for several years before buying their first home.
That experience reinforced his belief in hard work, patience and reward for effort. It also made him more aware of how difficult home ownership is becoming for younger Australians.
Buying a home is rarely an isolated financial transaction. It can influence decisions about marriage, children, career stability and where a family builds its community. When housing becomes less accessible, these other milestones can also be delayed.
Xavier is concerned that people may work, save and make responsible decisions but still find themselves locked out of the property market.
His own path makes housing affordability personal rather than abstract. He wants younger Australians to have the same opportunity to secure employment, save money and build a family nest egg, even if reaching that goal requires time and discipline.
Why Is Housing Affordability Such a Complex Issue?
Dev Singh: Housing is affected by taxation, immigration, investment, rental prices and supply. How should these different factors be understood together?
Xavier Boffa: Housing affordability is a multivariable issue involving responsibilities across federal, state and local government.
Federal policy can influence population growth, migration, taxation and investment. State governments have major responsibilities involving planning, property taxes, land availability and building regulation. Local government also affects planning approvals and development processes.
Xavier’s concern is that political leaders sometimes use this complexity to shift responsibility onto another level of government. When housing outcomes deteriorate, each government can point towards decisions made elsewhere.
He argues that complexity should not become an excuse for inaction. Political leaders who put themselves forward to serve the community should accept responsibility for the areas they can control.
No single policy will resolve rising rents, home prices and limited supply. Progress requires different levels of government to recognise their responsibilities and work together rather than treating political blame as a substitute for practical action.
What Is the Role of State and Federal Governments in Housing?
Dev Singh: How should state and federal governments work together instead of blaming one another?
Xavier Boffa: Xavier believes accountability must begin with each government taking responsibility for the policy levers available to it.
A state government cannot control every factor affecting housing. However, it can examine planning systems, building regulation, property taxes and the cost of delivering new homes. The federal government has different responsibilities, including national taxation settings and immigration policy.
Xavier argues that leaders should not respond to a complex problem by declaring that another government is entirely at fault. Public service requires acknowledging limitations while still acting where change is possible.
This approach also makes political accountability clearer. Voters should be able to understand which government controls a particular policy and what action it has taken.
Housing affordability will require cooperation, but cooperation does not remove responsibility. Each level of government must explain its decisions, assess the consequences and show how its policies contribute to building more homes and improving access for renters and prospective buyers.
How Do Taxes and Regulations Affect New Housing in Victoria?
Dev Singh: Are taxation and regulation making it more difficult to build new homes in Victoria?
Xavier Boffa: Xavier argues that government-related taxes, charges and regulations account for a substantial share of the cost of delivering new homes in Victoria. He describes this burden as approaching half the cost in some circumstances.
He points to land tax changes, the windfall gains tax and the broader regulatory environment as examples of costs affecting housing development. Victoria’s windfall gains tax applies when rezoning increases the value of land by more than $100,000.
In Xavier’s view, these costs eventually affect whether projects remain viable and how much buyers must pay.
He is particularly concerned about smaller builders, which have traditionally delivered a significant amount of housing. When construction costs increase and profit margins narrow, smaller businesses may have less capacity to absorb unexpected expenses.
Xavier connects these pressures directly to housing supply. If fewer builders can deliver homes, increasing supply becomes more difficult, placing further pressure on buyers and renters.
Why Are Smaller Builders Important to Housing Supply?
Dev Singh: What happens to housing affordability when smaller construction businesses struggle or close?
Xavier Boffa: Smaller builders play an important role in delivering homes across local communities. Unlike major developers, these businesses may have less financial capacity to withstand rising material costs, regulatory delays or unexpected changes during a project.
Xavier argues that this part of Victoria’s construction sector has been hit particularly hard. When smaller builders leave the market, the impact reaches beyond individual businesses and their employees.
A reduction in the number of active builders can weaken competition and reduce the sector’s capacity to deliver new homes. It can also disrupt buyers who have already committed their savings to a project.
For Xavier, this shows why housing policy must consider the people and businesses responsible for construction. Setting ambitious housing targets is not enough if the industry lacks the stability and capacity to deliver them.
Supporting housing supply therefore requires close attention to taxation, regulation, construction costs and the conditions facing smaller builders.
What Is the Central Political Lesson From the Housing Crisis?
The conversation between Xavier Boffa and Dev Singh connects housing affordability with a broader question about political responsibility.
Xavier’s personal story reflects the opportunities that education, employment and steady saving can create. At the same time, his experience of buying a first home showed him how difficult that pathway has become.
Housing is undeniably complex. Federal taxation, immigration, state regulation, property taxes, planning and construction capacity all influence the final outcome. Yet complexity should not allow governments to avoid accountability.
The central message is that opportunity must remain achievable. People should be able to study, find meaningful work, save and build a secure life for their families.
Achieving that goal will require state and federal leaders to move beyond blame, examine the costs created by their own policies and accept responsibility for improving housing supply and affordability.
Share Your Insights
Do you believe hard work and disciplined saving still provide a realistic pathway into the Australian property market? Which level of government should take greater responsibility for housing affordability and supply?
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Dev Singh