Last week's Anglicare rental snapshot showed the situation has reached crisis point for low-income earners, pensioners and welfare recipients.

The report revealed only 2.3 per cent of ACT and Queanbeyan rental properties are within reach of minimum-wage families compared with 4 per cent in Sydney and 40 per cent in other capitals. Cities like Canberra need childcare workers, nurses, cleaners and other low-paid workers to function. But if these people and those struggling on single or low incomes can no longer afford to live where they work, the whole community suffers, not just the individual.

Home ownership is a distant dream now for many Australians. Young people face potentially decades on the rental treadmill while a growing number of elderly will enter retirement without owning a property or having enough savings to buy one.

The response from governments so far has been inadequate. The Commonwealth has blamed the states and territories for not releasing more land while failing to heed calls for policy changes that reduce speculation and limit spiralling home values.

It's clear to most observers that negative gearing and capital gains tax have contributed to the housing bubble.

The other factor that remains unchecked is foreign investment.

A March 2017 report by global anti-corruption organisation, Transparency International, criticised Australia for a lack of diligence around foreigners buying property.

Transparency International found that Australia lacked any real commitment to tackle money laundering in real estate.

It's unacceptable that Australians are paying the price for poor government oversight.

In Canada, the government of British Columbia imposed a 15 per cent tax on foreign property investment in August and Ontario is following. If as is widely speculated wealthy foreigners are using the Australian property market to park their money beyond the gaze of their national governments, then this is clearly not in Australia's national interest. Worse still is the possibility that many of these properties sit empty while desperate first home buyers search in vain for a place to call home.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten has proposed similar measures to those in Canada for Australia and it's a useful contribution to the debate.

At the ACT level, there needs to be more investment in social housing and a continuation of the government's accelerated land release program.

The Property Council has also urged governments to examine the collective costs they impose on housing production through taxes and charges.

It also suggests the West Australian "Keystart" program should be adopted elsewhere.

Keystart provides low deposit home loans for owner-occupiers looking to access the market where other lenders cannot provide assistance. More than 85,000 people have used it to secure home ownership.

The dilemma for governments is that homeowners don't want property prices to fall.

Those who have floated along with the housing bubble have done quite nicely.

Some easing is necessary though to ensure that all sectors of society have access to affordable housing.

If something isn't done the gap between haves and have-nots will grow even greater, raising the level of disadvantage and causing untold social stress.

This year's federal and territory budgets need to kickstart genuine reform.