On Sunday Treasurer Joe Hockey effectively washed the federal government's hands of any responsibility for the high and rising cost of housing.

Last week the newly optimistic Mr Hockey seconded the opinion of the Reserve Bank that there is not a housing bubble.

But on Sunday he chimed in with concerns about the pace of "quite massive" price rises in the hotter pockets of the Australian market, seeming to join in the chorus steadily pushing for New Zealand-style macro-prudential restraints.

However, house prices seem to be a problem for everyone except the federal government.