Just as market forces were about to push the price of housing down in Australia, the Treasurer stepped in with some new regulation. Phew. Some first home buyer's nearly snatched a good deal, but luckily the Treasurer was there to protect the property developers from the oversupply their building bonanza created.

No issue creates a bigger flood of nonsensical econobabble in Australia than "housing affordability". It's a meaningless term engineered for the sole purpose of allowing politicians to pretend they are simultaneously on the side of home buyers and home sellers. What's remarkable is the willingness of the media and others to play along.

Most politicians are adamant that they want petrol, fresh food and health insurance to be less expensive. We talk about the price of petrol and the price of milk. We don't talk about "petrol affordability" or "bread affordability" let alone create an index of the price of bread divided by median household income. Talking endlessly about "housing affordability" allows politicians to duck the simple question of whether house prices are "too high", "too low" or "just right".

The week ahead is going to be data and policy driven for local investors. Today there is building approvals for May, followed by retail sales for May on Tuesday and May's trade report on Thursday. Andrew Quilty

The absurdity of this situation was revealed during the federal election campaign when the Coalition attacked the ALP's plans to reform negative gearing on the basis that such changes would, wait for it, put downward pressure on house prices. Oh, the humanity!

The Coalition's rhetorical solution to the imaginary issue of housing affordability is to reject changes to the tax treatment of investment houses and instead blame environmentalists and state governments for "restricting the supply of housing". Of course this week's redefinition of "second-hand property" by Treasurer Morrison makes a mockery of such a position. Having spent years pretending that increasing the housing supply would make housing "more affordable" the Treasurer has now acted to prevent an increase in apartment supply from pushing apartment prices down.