What avocados have to do with housing crises from Australia to Hong Kong

Economist’s claim that affordability crisis facing first-home buyers is really about profligate youth – epitomised by a swipe at Australia’s favourite cafe breakfast – should be taken with a pinch of salt

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An Australian economist has created a storm by suggesting young people could climb on to the property ladder by saving on luxuries such as avocado on toast. File photo

Published: 10:00am, 5 Nov 2016Updated: 10:10am, 5 Nov 2016

The connection between smashed avocado on toast and housing affordability in Australia. Is that a Freakonomics riddle, a spurious correlation or a topic that warrants a serious multi-day discussion for Australia’s media, old and new? The last.

As in Hong Kong, housing affordability for the young is a constant topic of debate and anger. Many would-be first-home buyers are either priced out of the market or facing years of saving for a deposit yet, again like in HK, home ownership is considered not only an important economic guarantor, but a rite of passage.

Anger here may not have reached protest levels yet, but every now and then something sets off another wave of rage and debate.

But avocado?

The first salvo came in the conservative broadsheet The Australia n , where economist and futurist Bernard Salt wrote that he had seen young people (possibly hipsters because they were apparently sat on milk crates) paying A$22 “for smashed avocado and feta on five-grain toast”.

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