HAMISH MACDONALD: So the argument goes that young Aussies are spending way too much of money on expensive avocado on toast and that's why we can't afford to buy a house. But in truth, we all know it is much more complicated than that. Whether you're young or old, retired or working, borrowing for the first time or already up to your ears in debt that old Aussie dream of owning your own home now seems harder to achieve than ever. Don't even bother turning up here unless you've got a couple of spare million rattling around in your pocket. But the point is Australia is not alone. We're now part of a global phenomenon, where housing affordability is reaching crisis point. So, tonight we're taking you on a journey, a global journey in search of some solutions.

TITLE: THE HOME SHOW

HAMISH MACDONALD: We all know there's a problem. What we can't agree on is exactly what causes it, or how to fix it.

JAMES MURRAY: "There's no silver bullet".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Tonight, hopefully, some answers from around the world.

JAMES MURRAY: "But there isn't a simple fix".

HAMISH MACDONALD: How are people overseas confronting the challenge of housing affordability?

JAMES MURRAY: "And there isn't a quick fix either".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Okay, okay we get it.

JAMES MURRAY: "There's no magic answer which will fix everything".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Tonight we ask, do Aussie politicians really have all the ideas or are there bigger, bolder options out there?"

KIM LOUDRUP: "Forget the politicians! Forget them!"

HAMISH MACDONALD: We're lining up some surprising solutions from the Big Apple, patrolling the beat with Barcelona's property cops, and in Britain, we'll explore a property market with some real bite. From the Japanese, to those clever Scandinavians, we'll look to the future of housing and ask: Can we afford it? And I promise, living in a floating shipping container probably isn't as bad as you think!

KIM LOUDRUP: "It's one of the solutions, it's not the solution".

HAMISH MACDONALD: The world's mega-cities are growing. The race to buy property in them is fierce and if you think you don't get much for your money in Australian property, well we're about to visit a place that might put things in perspective. Advertised as "the smallest house in London", it's real estate speak for sure, but 20 Britten Street ain't big.

"Robyn!"

ROBIN SWAILES: "Hi Hamish, how are you?"

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Very nice to meet you! So this is it?"

ROBIN SWAILES: "This is it. This is my littlest bolthole".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "It's not a lot more than that".

ROBIN SWAILES: "It shouldn't take too long to look around".

HAMISH MACDONALD: For 26 square metres Robin Swailes forked out ï¿½700,000 - that's a little over 1.2 million Aussie.

ROBIN SWAILES: "We paid well ï¿½2.50 per square centimetre".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "So for... (shows size)".

ROBIN SWAILES: "For yeah, a square centimetre, ï¿½2.50. About that yeah, about that!" (laughs).

HAMISH MACDONALD: "For this space, what have you, what have you paid?"

ROBIN SWAILES: "I think the, I think the shower room alone is $60,000 Aussie dollars, yeah".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Right. Wow".

ROBIN SWAILES: "Yeah it's frightening, isn't it!"

HAMISH MACDONALD: Don't worry though, it's not a total rip off. There's an upstairs.

(walking up the small staircase) "You have to breathe in, to get up here. (looking out the window) It's a nice view, for a small place it's got a big view".

ROBIN SWAILES: "It is kind of tiny but this is... it's lovely".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "You like small houses. You're kind of obsessed with them".

ROBIN SWAILES: "Yeah I like the management of space. I like doing really clever things in small spaces".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Lovely as the view here is, it's expensive. People working in the key sectors can't afford the rent and can't get the deposit together to buy. They're being priced out of London.

Home to almost 8.7 million people, 300 different languages are spoken in local schools here. This is the very definition of a 'global city'. And here in the east end, things are changing. Once working class suburbs are now populated by hipsters, and high income families. These days most ordinary Londoners don't have a hope of buying into the places you'd find on the old Monopoly board. They're being pushed further out of the centre and for many, the situation is so desperate, they're being pushed off dry land altogether.

Canal boat living has more than doubled in London in the past five years. So I'm on my way out to meet Miila and her charming pet Doberman.

"Hi Miila, are you there?" (dog frightens Hamish)

MIILA: (pumping water) "Ooh la la. Works like magic".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Today is a cleaning day on deck. Miila Only recently moved on to the canal.

MIILA: "About a month, a month and a half. So everything is a bit of a chaos. Oh yeah guys, it's working!"

HAMISH MACDONALD: The engine bay needs cleaning out.

MIILA: "My dad was an engineer. It's really dirty and you want to get it out, but you don't want to get it in the river so you get a bottle and a bucket".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Life on the water does take some adjustment, but it has its advantages.

MIILA: "If you really hate your neighbour you don't have to complain, you just go".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Canal boating is more a symptom of London's housing crisis than a solution. Most need to move moorings every fortnight, but compared with escalating rental costs, the price here is right.

MIILA: "A grand and a half".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Oh wow that's really cheap".

MIILA: "The same size as that one and that's twenty six".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "That's a bargain!"

MIILA: "I know".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "A lot cheaper than a flat down the road".

MIILA: "For a month and I've got it for life, hey you can't beat that!"

HAMISH MACDONALD: Much like in Australia, people in this city are giving up on home ownership. The canal boats offer an alternative.

MIILA: "It's marvellous. I'm a property owner".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "First time?"

MIILA: "First time in my life".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "And how does that feel?"

MIILA: "Amazing. A little bit scary. I'm turning into a posh person now".

HAMISH MACDONALD: So, just how big is the problem here? And how are they trying to solve it? Interestingly, Labour controlled London and the Conservative run national government are working together to find and fund solutions. I'm going to City Hall, 'The Beehive' as it's known or as one mayor called it, 'the Glass Gonad'. James Murray is the man responsible. 3.1 billion pounds has been pledged - that's around 5.2 billion Australian dollars. By 2021 they will have started building 90,000 new affordable homes in this city alone.

"Is there a simple fix?"

JAMES MURRAY: "No (laughs) and I think that's the one thing everyone agrees on, that there isn't a simple fix and there isn't a quick fix either. There's no silver bullet and there's nothing that's going to fix the housing crisis overnight. Now what we need to do is start moving in a better direction. We need to turn the, turn the ship round and start point it in a better direction".

HAMISH MACDONALD: And that, of course, means boosting supply.

JAMES MURRAY: "The only solution to London's housing crisis is building a lot more homes. And when we say building more homes is important, not only do we mean the overall number is important, but in order to get to that number we need to build all sorts of different homes. And that means you can have big home builders, small home builders, institutional investors, market level, affordable housing, buying, renting, everything needs to come on stream".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Supply is the catch-cry for Australia's government too.

JAMES MURRAY: "There's a huge amount of capacity in East London to build out there".

HAMISH MACDONALD: New rules in London mean that if a developer meets a target of 35% affordable housing within a new development they're promised a fast track approval process. London gets more new homes quickly and developers get less red tape.

Housing is a huge problem and a huge political issue here too. What does stand out though is that at local and national level there is at least some collaboration across party lines.

"Is that needed though, some degree of consensus in order to fix this housing problem?"

JAMES MURRAY: "I think you need consensus and stability to help try and fix the housing crisis. I think when you talk to the development industry, what they crave is stability and certainty to try and make long term goals".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Australia like much of the world is grappling with this issue. So, what exactly does 'housing affordability' mean? In our two biggest cities prices jumped as much as 19% in the last year alone. We earn nearly 10 times more than we did 40 years ago, but house prices are now nearly 30 times higher than they were back then. Economists though are divided on whether soaring prices are the problem or interest rates. Back in 1990 interest rates were 17% compared to just over 4% now which makes it much cheaper for us to service that debt currently. That is of course until interest rates go up!

The cost of housing is an issue in many countries, but Australia is a stand out. We've overtaken Britain, America, Canada and most of Europe in a race to the bottom on affordable housing. In London, just like in Australia, often the big challenge is getting a deposit together.

ALEX BELL: "It felt like every time I got to a point where, oh maybe just another few months and I'll be able to do it, the prices went up. And it kept going further and further".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Alex Bell is 32. She moved here from Australia just over a decade ago. She's a qualified accountant, works in a hedge-fund and earns a decent, above average wage and saves. Even still, buying wasn't easy.

ALEX BELL: "You've got to be able to get a deposit together and this is while you're also paying rent, which... rent is expensive and it's getting more and more expensive".

(at her new home) "Hey!"

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Hi Alex, how are you?"

ALEX BELL: "Good. How are you? Come in".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Nice to see you. Thank you very much. I'm very excited about seeing your place".

Alex didn't have enough deposit to purchase this home outright, but she managed to buy it anyway, using a financial structure you won't find in Australia.

ALEX BELL: "So this is the kitchen and living room".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "This is pretty big.

ALEX BELL: "It's very big".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "It's big for a London flat".

ALEX BELL: "It's big for a London flat actually. I love it. I love the area".

HAMISH MACDONALD: It's called shared ownership. Alex had enough deposit to buy 60% of this flat. The Housing Association, effectively a not for profit developer often with government subsidies, retained ownership of the remaining 40% which Alex then rented from them at a discounted rate. Initially, the mortgage was ï¿½800 a month, the rent ï¿½400 a month, with a service charge on top.

ALEX BELL: "If you look at a two-bedroom in this area and you think about what you'd be paying on rent for that alone, it's just a no brainer that you would want to live in a nice home, you know with lots of space, that's all mine!"

HAMISH MACDONALD: That was for the first 3 years but Brixton prices have gone up and so too the value of Alex's share which means the bank let her borrow more to buy outright.

ALEX BELL: "It's worked out very well for me and if you think that if I hadn't done that, you know, I would have missed out on that 30% growth on the equity that I did own, and that's helped me buy the rest of it".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Shared ownership has its critics too - and it comes with strings attached - including a salary cap to qualify. But it does deal with an acute issue for young people - getting enough deposit together while prices continue rising. It's meant Alex has done something most of her friends haven't yet managed.

ALEX BELL: "I would say, you know, the only one who has done it - maybe because of my accountancy background I've always been very focused on saving and I've also been...".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "So you're a penny pincher?"

ALEX BELL: "Yeah I am! I am. I like to call it frugal rather than tight. I don't know how anyone else will do it without help from family or you know being as frugal as I am so".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Would you be annoying at the pub?"

ALEX BELL: "I always get the rounds in. Too much actually. I'll show you my receipts". (laughing)

HAMISH MACDONALD: So what exactly drives prices up in Australia? For many negative gearing is the chief culprit - the tax incentive offered to property investors. If they pay more on the loan than they get in rent, the difference is taken off their income so they pay less tax. This means that many young Australians are competing, and often losing, against these cashed up investors when they try to buy their first property.

But other countries without negative gearing, like the UK, also have housing affordability problems. So the federal government says this isn't actually to blame. Instead, they reckon it's supply. We should just build more housing. Lots of new properties to flood the market, ease demand and put a lid on price growth.

Realistically, there are other factors too like the discounts offered on capital gains tax, there's foreign investment and demographic trends. All of which means there is no simple solution. But if supply is the big thing, how does that work in practice?

RACHEL MEALEY (ABC Reporter, Tokyo): Japan's capital Tokyo is a city of extremes, but extreme house prices is one thing it doesn't have.

ROBIN HARDING: "There's a constant supply of housing in the centre of Tokyo and it expands every year. In fact there's more housing starts in the city of Tokyo in the average year than there are in the entire country of England".

RACHEL MEALEY: Robin Harding is a former banker turned journalist. He's lived here for 15 years. Tokyo real estate is one of his pet subjects.

ROBIN HARDING: "Tokyo is a great example of a city where people are allowed to build".

RACHEL MEALEY: When the 80's property bubble burst in Japan, major banks were left holding bad debt and developers had unwanted office buildings. So the government eased planning regulations in commercial districts to allow the land to be used for any purpose. And the result was a steady supply of new homes.

ROBIN HARDING: "The nature of the Japanese system means that each plot of land is treated just like that, it's a plot of land. There's no planning, no one says, you know, the street should look like this and all the houses should have this kind of windows and they should be this high, which is what you get in London".

RACHEL MEALEY: While the rest of Japan's population is declining, Tokyo is bucking the trend, the city's now nudging 35 million. But despite this growth, there hasn't been the upward pressure on prices experienced by other big cities.

ROBIN HARDING: "Tokyo is the biggest, one of the most densely populated cities on earth. So it's not cheap, it's never going to be cheap, there's a limited amount of land for 35 million people. What you haven't seen in the last 20 or 30 years is any of the price increases that you've seen in cities like San Francisco, in London, in Sydney, where supply is much more constrained. So personally I think there's very little doubt that the higher supply in Tokyo has kept a lid on prices".

RACHEL MEALEY: (walking down street) "This street is a good example of the sometimes crazy mix of buildings you can find on any one street. We've got some apartment blocks, next to that is a family home, next to that is a building someone's decided to paint pink and next to that is a castle!"

Some Aussies might see their home as their castle, but in Japan there isn't an emphasis on owning at all costs.

ROBIN HARDING: "They don't feel this pressure, that pressure that you feel in a city like London or Sydney, 'I must buy now or my life will be blighted'. You just don't get that. House prices are not a subject at dinner party conversation in Tokyo because they just don't change very much. I think that's great!"

RACHEL MEALEY: "What are people talking about if not the property prices?"

ROBIN HARDING: "North Korea".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Still to come tonight, a country where they do things very differently.

KIM LAUDRUP: "This is a 25 square metre student apartment with a sea view".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Where there are more bikes than cars and some very big ideas.

TEASER END

HAMISH MACDONALD: One of the big questions about housing affordability is who's responsible for fixing it? Is it government, is it developers? This is a pocket house in central London. Basically it's aimed at young people who fall in the gap. They earn too much for social housing, but too little to buy their own home. They pay 20% less than the market average for a flat that's 20% smaller.

"Why on earth are you not just sort of making these and selling them for as much money as you can get to whoever wants it?"

LUCIEN SMITHERS: "It's certainly harder than any other form of housing because you don't have the margin, you don't have the upside".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "So why do it?"

LUCIEN SMITHERS: "We think that it's a lower margin product that is going to serve a certain segment of the audience and it could be a global product".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "So, if some developers are willing to help solve this problem, what then is the role of government? In some countries they're reluctant to get too involved, but in other places there's a radically interventionist approach".

It's one of the world's most popular cities, a magnet for tourists, expats and retirees. With its sun-drenched beaches, stunning architecture, world famous food and never ending festivals, Barcelona is hard to beat. Who wouldn't want to come here? And that's the problem.

ERIC CAMPBELL: (standing in square) "Well this is what used to be called 'the off season'. But these days it doesn't matter if it's the height of summer or the depths of winter, every day the centre of Barcelona is under occupation by foreign visitors or as the locals call them, 'guiris'. And what does that have to do with housing? Well, if you're a landlord in Barcelona you're not going to want to rent or even sell your apartment to poor locals, if you can make much more money out of 'guiris'."

Residents are paying more and more to compete with tourists, expats and foreign investors. But Barcelona is fighting back. The mayor, Ada Colau is a former housing activist. She's directed the council to clamp down on foreign rental sites like Airbnb. She's even sending out inspectors to hunt down illegal rentals.

APARTMENT OCCUPANT: (loud door knocking) "Who is it?"

HOME INSPECTOR: "Inspector from Barcelona City Council".

ERIC CAMPBELL: More on what happens behind the door later. Visit any public square and it looks like locals are living the good life. I've come here to meet two old friends, Anita and Jordi. They've always been proud of Barcelona's reputation as Spain's most international city. But it's wearing thin.

ANITA: "Yes, way too international".

JORDI: "I consider tourism a kind of um.... pollution".

ERIC CAMPBELL: Food and wine might still be cheap, but Spanish wages just can't match what foreigners pay for housing.

JORDI: "It's a city full of old people who have lived here all their lives and have a flat - and tourists".

ERIC CAMPBELL: "So what's it like for young people here? What's their future?"

JORDI: "Their future is spending a period of their life sharing a room with other flatmates and afterwards they move 20 kilometres, 50 kilometres, from the city centre".

ERIC CAMPBELL: Moving 20 kilometres away might not sound much by Sydney or Melbourne standards, but Barcelona is not a suburban city. People live on top of each other in neighbourhoods, with their own schools, corner stores, bars and cafes. Leaving your neighbourhood means losing your community. And right now entire buildings are being emptied to make way for foreigners. Santi Mas De Xaxas has just learned his three year lease won't be renewed.

SANTI MAS DE XAXAS: "Right now I am facing the problem that all these buildings are being turned now to apartments for tourists. So they are not renewing... not renewing any longer the lease to the.... to our tenants so I have already been told that we have to leave the apartment".

ERIC CAMPBELL: His one bedroom flat will be renovated for short term tourist stays.

SANTI MAS DE XAXAS: "I'm paying 600. There's no way I can afford this anywhere in the area. I'm going to have to move further out of Barcelona or to a farther away neighbourhood from the centre".

ERIC CAMPBELL: Critics blame the so-called 'sharing economy' for fuelling the crisis. Online reservation sites like Airbnb allow tourists to book rooms in apartments. The number has exploded since 2008 and these are just the ones the city council knows about. Thousands more operate without a licence. Many of them have become illegal hotels run by agents where the tourists never even meet the owner. But they might just meet these women - Barcelona Council's home inspectors. Don't let the mild manners fool you, they're the city's secret weapon against illegal renting.

HOME INSPECTOR: "We've got a list of flats that we have to check because we suspect they are illegal apartments, tourist apartments".

ERIC CAMPBELL: "Carolina Perez and Ivette Hidalgo can inspect dozens of apartments a day. For each area, they cross check a list of licensed rental properties with what's being advertised.

HOME INSPECTOR: "50% of of the apartments are illegal now.

ERIC CAMPBELL: "50% are illegal?"

HOME INSPECTOR: "Or more, yeah, yeah, yeah".

ERIC CAMPBELL: "Wow".

HOME INSPECTOR: "Yeah, it's amazing".

ERIC CAMPBELL: "That's a huge problem".

HOME INSPECTOR: "Exactly, so we have to stop it".

ERIC CAMPBELL: "And what's that doing to rents here?"

HOME INSPECTOR: "The rent prices go up.... in two years 50% more".

ERIC CAMPBELL: "Wow in this... in this touristy area here, yeah".

HOME INSPECTOR: "Yes. It's crazy".

ERIC CAMPBELL: "So we foreigners are ruining Barcelona, are we?"

HOME INSPECTOR: "Hmm, hmmm (laughs)

ERIC CAMPBELL: To prove an illegal rental, they simply buzz on the door and talk their way in. Then it's a matter of seeing who is in the apartment and who they're paying.

HOME INSPECTOR: "It's very weird, no? Suddenly you have having holidays and someone knock on the door and tell you that.. starts asking questions. I understand this".

ERIC CAMPBELL: At this flat, a somewhat startled German gives them all they need to prosecute the landlord.

HOME INSPECTOR: "Don't worry, we are from the City Council... ".

HOME INSPECTOR: "You pay in cash... or by card?"

GERMAN TOURIST: "Yeah, by card - via the Airbnb.

HOME INSPECTOR: "You like Barcelona? First time?"

GERMAN TOURIST: "Yes, first time".

HOME INSPECTOR: "I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for your cooperation".

(explaining to Eric) "They are tourists. Three young people. And they staying for less than one week.

HOME INSPECTOR: "Four nights".

HOME INSPECTOR: "And they pay through the platform Airbnb. So it's done. It's perfect".

ERIC CAMPBELL: And at the next building they get even luckier. A disgruntled neighbour points them to a tourist apartment they weren't even aware of. If it's unlicensed, the owner will face a potentially ruinous fine.

(standing outside of the apartment) "Right so neighbours are telling on people if they hear foreigners staying the in apartment".

HOME INSPECTOR: "You have to ask, because sometimes they are annoyed, because of the situation".

ERIC CAMPBELL: "So if it does turn out to be illegal, they could be facing a 60,000 Euro fine?"

HOME INSPECTOR: "Yes. It's quite a lot. For four nights".

ERIC CAMPBELL: "For four nights rent, a 60,000 Euro fine. Where I come from in Australia that's $100,000. That's a lot of money.

HOME INSPECTOR: "Yes. It's a big business."

ERIC CAMPBELL: The city government has also levied big fines on the home sharing corporations. In November, Airbnb and HomeAway were slugged nearly a million dollars each. In 2015, the council froze applications for tourist rental apartments. Now it's giving licences again, but under strict conditions. Vanessa Valino heads the council's affordable housing unit.

VANESA VALINO: "That's why it's important to set limits. We say yes to tourist apartments but not everything can be tourist apartments because the neighbourhoods also need apartments for neighbours".

ERIC CAMPBELL: And the council hasn't been scared to hit banks where it hurts either. It found many were just sitting on properties they had repossessed, waiting for their value to rise so they could sell them to foreigners.

VANESA VALINO: "The negotiation with the banks, along with the legal measures, we have begun to impose fines of up to 300,000 euros has enabled the transfer of 250 homes from banks to the City Council to put them in social rent".

ERIC CAMPBELL: Any conversation here is punctuated with the sound of protest. Just opposite the Town Hall is a square where citizens come to air their grievances. Many want the council to be even tougher on foreign renters and investors.

(at the protest) "Barcelona has a pretty militant history of revolution and anarchy and civil war and every two or three days there are big protests like this here about housing and unemployment and low salaries. And in this town, politicians ignore these problems at their peril.

Foreign visitors may be unaware of the pressures they're putting on Barcelona's community. For many, an angry protest is just one more opportunity for an exotic selfie. But does it make sense to crack down on one of the only industries bringing in much needed money? Terrorist attacks in Paris and London have seen a surge of visitors to northern Spain. Last year this city of 1.3 million hosted more than nine million tourists.

VANESA VALINO: "The city needs tourism, tourism creates employment, tourism is wealth - is knowing other cultures. But tourism without boundaries devastates the area, puts an end to local commerce, and puts an end to housing for the neighbours of the city".

Santi is already nostalgic for the city he grew up in, a place where rich and poor lived side by side and artists, writers and musicians could afford to live in its heart.

SANTI MAS DE XAXAS: (playing a vinyl record) "This is what Barcelona used to be. You know, a good mixture of foreign influences and a strong local flavour".

SONG LYRICS: Close your eyes and I'll kiss you, tomorrow I'll miss you, remember I'll always be true, and then while I'm away, I'll write home every day and I'll send all my loving to you.

ERIC CAMPBELL: But even as he's losing his own apartment, he's looking on the bright side.

SANTI MAS DE XAXAS: "If you talk to the people that are close to the neighbourhoods, you will see a lot of people fighting back, you know, a lot of people trying to the speculators, to work for our health. So yeah this is the history of this city since the beginning of the century and even before, that's why I'm optimistic. And you see daily victories, that's where you get your hope from".

ERIC CAMPBELL: So far the crackdown on tourist rentals hasn't stopped people coming. The streets can still be clogged with sightseeing buses.

(on the bus) "Of course a lot of people who come to Barcelona come just to see the buildings and they are lovely, but you have to wonder what's going to happen if the only people who can afford to live in them are rich foreigners. What happens to the city's character, it's life, it's grit, if it becomes a gentrified theme park? Is it still going to be the sort of place you want to visit, the sort of place you want to live?"

HAMISH MACDONALD: One of the real issues with all of this also seems to be managing expectations about how we live, how big we live and also where we live. Well they say that location is important. Well, how about this one? These pods are specifically designed to stand on stilts, above car parks. It's one answer to a really complex question, which is, how do you create spaces for people working in the key sectors to afford to live in the big, busy and now really expensive major cities?

CONOR DUFFY (ABC reporter, Washington): New York, one of the world's greatest cities and one of the most expensive. Is there any point trying to make a home in the Big Apple if you don't have a million dollar salary? To find out I've come to the Bronx, to visit a place they call Co-Op City. It's the biggest government backed co-operative housing project in America, possibly the world.

NOEL ELLISON: "Co-Op City was built under what was called the Mitchell-Lama Housing Program. It was a programme that was designed to keep the middle class from leaving New York City and moving into other areas, that was about 50 years ago".

CONOR DUFFY: Noel Ellison is the General Manager of Co-op City. He's the man to see to get your hands on the cheapest apartment in NYC.

"Wow it's really big!"

NOEL ELLISON: "Yeah this is one of our three bedroom apartments in the tower building and we're on the 32nd floor".

CONOR DUFFY: Buying this is just $30,000, then a monthly maintenance fee of around 1400 dollars. This is three bedrooms, for one in Manhattan, it's about $700,000.

"So the goal of the program was to make sure there are enough middle income workers staying in the city, has that happened? Do most people commute into the city for work?"

NOEL ELLISON: "At least from Co-Op City's standpoint, this is a success story. We have people who work in hospitals, people who work for the Board of Education, teachers and and what not and then we have a bunch of people who do business on their own, probably small business owners throughout the city".

CONOR DUFFY: "How long is the waiting list to get in here?"

NOEL ELLISON: "Oh the waiting list is about 5 years at this point in time".

CONOR DUFFY: "Wow".

Outside you get a true sense of the scale of the place - it's enormous.

NOEL ELLISON: "The one factor we know we have is 15,372 units, makes us what I believe is the largest housing development in the world. In addition to that, I guess we've got, anywhere from 35 to 50,000 residents".

CONOR DUFFY: These guys are the Bartow Swingers, they meet a couple of times a week. In this place they want the oldies to hang around as long as possible. When you can't make a profit when you sell, people tend to stay - and that includes 104 year old Miss Louise.

DANCE TEACHER: "After we do the first dance, we're then going to invite Conor in, and he's going to participate with us okay?"

CONOR DUFFY: Noel and I soon find out dancing is harder than it looks - at any age. Our instructor is teaching me something called 'the wobble'.

After two long minutes it's over. And apparently I'm not that great at this, I'm diplomatically told it's not how you dance but that you tried that's important. For the people who can't get a start in places like Co-Op City, New York can be a hard place to set up home. Nicholas Dagen Bloom writes about this. He's concerned about the next generation of middle income workers - how will they afford to live here?

NICHOLAS DAGEN BLOOM: "They face a very difficult situation because they will not be covered under rent stabilisation so the rent can increase very rapidly and I think that very often they end up for instance purchasing market rate apartments which are beyond what they can really sustain".

CONOR DUFFY: No big surprise, there are real knock on effects from over extending.

NICHOLAS DAGEN BLOOM: "Well that means you have less money for higher education for your kids, for retirement, ah other needs. So we do we know that not only the very poor people in the city, but also a lot of the middle class are what we call either rent burdens or very high mortgages so they're not in a good situation either".

CONOR DUFFY: For a big city like New York the businesses that run it demand that government keep space in the cities for key workers including low income earners. So New York City's administrators have an ambitious plan for 200,000 affordable apartments to be made available over the next decade.

Back at Co-Op City, Eva and Dave are long-standing residents and beneficiaries of subsidised apartment living.

DAVE: "My wife left and when her husband left we kind of got together at that point".

EVA: "He gave me a year". (laughs)

CONOR DUFFY: Both raised families here and now have grandkids. Eva remembers the original advertising campaign to get people to move to the complex.

EVA: "People were encouraged to come to this fantastic middle income housing rainbow, with a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And people flocked here".

CONOR DUFFY: "Can I give you a hand, Eva? "

EVA: "Okay. You can open this drawer and in the front row of silverware....."

CONOR DUFFY: For them the system that underpins Co-Op City, has more than fulfilled its promise.

"People would be very interested to know how it is to live here, what's it like?"

DAVE: "It's good housing that's affordable. In a Mitchell-Lama Co-Op, that's the name of the law in New York State, the state subsidises part of the cost so you're paying a fixed share rate per room. And that equity is the same when you leave as when you put in. You can't make a profit but in return you're getting really a reduced rate. We feel that we're living in a beautiful apartment in New York City for probably half or more of what the market rate would be".

CONOR DUFFY: "So given that there's not much new housing stock like this coming on line, do you guys worry at all about the future for your grandkids?"

DAVE: "I think housing affordability will always be an issue. Some people claim that New York City is going to price its way out of the middle income market completely, that Manhattan will be reserved for only rich people. But I, I don't believe that. I believe that there is a balance. We are hopeful. But at the same time, I don't know. I really don't know what's going to happen".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Denmark. Officially the happiest country on earth. Nine out of ten Danes have a bicycle - just four out of ten have a car. The country has high population growth targets. In under a decade Copenhagen hopes to be the world's first carbon neutral capital- and all of this while maintaining a triple A credit rating. The Danes certainly seem to know what they're doing when it comes to living. Even still, they've got their own issues with housing affordability.

(riding bicycle) "The thing you notice in a city like this is that it just functions differently to the way our cities do. People work differently, they get around differently and they live differently. And so that means that when it comes to solving big challenges like this, well they're thinking about how to do that differently too".

Here, like in Australia, the problem particularly affects young people. In less than ten years Copenhagen needs another 45,000 homes. They need in the order of 10,000 more just for students and that's led to some creative solutions. Right next to the university, developers are building an entire village out of shipping containers.

AGENT: (showing accommodation options to students) "This is the second demo and as you can see, it's.... it's a bit more rustic...."

(entering the container house) These students are getting their first look. They're eager to get on the waiting list.

One Danish shipping company alone disposes of 200,000 containers each year so there's a surplus of these which means they come cheap.

AGENT: "So this is the actual journey it's been on over the ocean. Been to Montreal, Hong Kong, and Egypt".

HAMISH MACDONALD: These guys are all on the hunt for somewhere to live.

IDA: "It's just gone in 5 minutes, literally, it's gone. Even if you post, 'Like hi I'm Ida', with perfect resume, everything.. it's just gone".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Is there something wrong with you, or is this...".

IDA: "I hope not. (laughing)

HAMISH MACDONALD: "It's a problem that all young people are facing".

IDA: "No it's a problem that we all are facing, all of the persons I know at least".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "You sound pretty desperate".

IDA: "I am. I am desperate. It's not fun to be almost homeless".

HAMISH MACDONALD: They've changed the zoning laws in Denmark to make this work. Finding disused land, not yet zoned for development, they can quickly and cheaply throw up a community.

"I think it's fair to say most people, if you said to them, 'You can go and live in a shipping container', they wouldn't be all that excited about it".

GLEN: "No, that's true, and I also had somewhat of doubts. It seems... it seems pretty nice actually and location wise it's better than other places I could imagine".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "And the big question of course is would you live in this?"

GLEN: "Yes, definitely. Also applying... as soon as they open up, yeah!"

HAMISH MACDONALD: They're willing to try it at least.

So I'm on my way to meet someone who wants to sell this kind of idea to the world.

"Hi, I'm Hamish. So this is it? What is it?"

KIM LAUDRUP: "Well this is a floating structure called Urban Rigger and it's 12 student houses on this floating concrete platform".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "And you want people to live in it?"

KIM LAUDRUP: "Yeah, well it's nice to wake up in the morning and look at the water, and have a sea view when you are studying".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Yeah it's not bad. Can we take a look?"

KIM LAUDRUP: "Sure we can, come on in!"

HAMISH MACDONALD: Kim Laudrup is the brains and the ball of energy behind the Urban Rigger project.

"Is this actually finished?"

KIM LAUDRUP: "Yes.

HAMISH MACDONALD: "So this is it".

KIM LAUDRUP: "This is 25 square metre student apartment with a sea view that will cost you 500, 600, 700 dollars a day in the...".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "A day?"

KIM LAUDRUP: ".. in the hotel next to us".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "And for this place?"

KIM LAUDRUP: "Six hundred dollars a month".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Right".

KIM LAUDRUP: "The floor heating's working. It's 29 degree here".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "It's toasty in here".

KIM LAUDRUP: "Isn't that nice? The colour's coming back in your face now and it looks good". (laughing)

HAMISH MACDONALD: The concept for this design was born out of Kim's need to find affordable housing for his son, heading off to uni.

KIM LAUDRUP: "You know what does not work is these parents who say, 'Oh, this is nothing. When I was young, you know, I was living in a shoebox, eating my feet for breakfast.' You know? All of that".

HAMISH MACDONALD: And for this Dane, the benefits of container living go well beyond the price.

KIM LAUDRUP: "All the young people that live here, they get a fishing rod. There are very clean waters here and you pull out a cod".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Are you serious?"

KIM LAUDRUP: "Oh I'm dead serious. I mean you'll see fishing all over the place here. Fishing for their supper. It's so clean this water.

HAMISH MACDONALD: "All right".

KIM LAUDRUP: "Right you pull out a cod and you throw it on the stove that gets the power from the solar panels on the roof".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "I'll take your word for it on the cod".

KIM LAUDRUP: "Cod, we have cod, we have herring, we have flatfish, we have trout...".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "So where are we off to now?"

KIM LAUDRUP: "We're going below sea level now - two and a half metres below sea level. And this is the heart of the urban rigger. This is where everything goes on in terms of heating. You can see here, the geothermal heating system works".

HAMISH MACDONALD: It's hard to imagine anyone more passionate or daring when it comes to solving the crisis in housing. Kim would probably give most of our politicians a run for their money.

KIM LAUDRUP: "Forget the politicians. Forget them! They're not going to help us. Not because they don't want to - they can't. We need to sort out the shit that we're in ourselves. The market of housing is driven by economics. It's a financial question and the way we're going now is that we're pushing the existing infrastructure out of the big cities, I mean our nurses and our taxi drivers and our students - all the small cogs in the big machinery are being pushed out".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "So what happens to those cities when the small cogs get pushed out?"

KIM LAUDRUP: "Well I think that when the small cogs disappear, the big machinery stops. It's as simple as that".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Denmark is thinking bigger about the future of housing than most places. This is Space 10, an innovation lab. It's funded by a very big and famous Scandinavian furniture company, but don't worry, there's not a flat pack box or an Allen key in sight. Kaave is the boss around here. At 27, he's planning for your future and mine.

KAAVE: "Welcome to the farm".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Okay. This is not the kind of farm I'm used to".

KAAVE: "No but this is what you call hydroponic farming. This is micro greens, but we can grow almost everything".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "And is the idea that by growing this stuff in buildings where people live and work, that you can then bring down the cost of the building itself?"

KAAVE: "We could easily imagine a future where the house you live in is not only where you sleep and where you eat, but also where the food you eat are being grown. And that for me is super interesting for many reasons - one is the price".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Here in Denmark it seems solving housing affordability is not just about prices, tax policy or supply.

KAAVE: "No matter what, we will build more - because the world will keep on increasing with the population and we will soon, within the future, reach up to 9.7 billion people on this planet which is a huge increase in the amount of people. So we will need to build more than a billion housing units no matter what. The question is how we build them. The question is where we build them and how those buildings function together".

HAMISH MACDONALD: But Denmark is not just looking to the future, it's also looking to its past when life revolved around farming and a system that puts the emphasis on buying to live rather than buying to profit. Mads is an inner city dad. He's picking up the kids from school today. Gustav is 3 and Siri is 5... and this is their shared rooftop garden.

MADS: "This is actually our garbage shed we're on top of".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Your kids are developing their very own technique for gardening it seems".

MADS: "Yeah, very efficient. Kill the strawberry plants". (laughing)

HAMISH MACDONALD: The garden is not the only thing Mads shares with the neighbours. This block has a uniquely Danish ownership structure.

MADS: "It's called Andelsbolig".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Which means?"

MADS: "It means share housing. So each of us has a share".

HAMISH MACDONALD: Sixteen apartments, and sixteen shareholders. They buy into the block, giving them the right to live there and rent a flat.

MADS: "Somehow it's a mixture of real estate and for rent but I think it's the best of two worlds that comes together".

HAMISH MACDONALD: The Andels apartment is a big phenomenon in Denmark. The prices are pegged to inflation. You have to live in the property cutting out speculation and this is one example of how the Danes severely limit foreign buyers.

"But it's not the same thing as a co-op, is it?"

MADS: "No, like in the farming, when Denmark had a lot of farms you would share like where you do the milk. Like when you're taking milk from the cow and you put it in the diary, they would own it together. So it's the same idea that you own something together and you have access to it".

HAMISH MACDONALD: It means thousands of people with ordinary jobs can afford a decent 4 bedroom place like this in the centre of Copenhagen.

"What would be the difference in price between an Andels apartment and the same sort of thing on the open market?"

MADS: "Right now it's at least double... or more. I think the apartment - and this is 110 square metres - if you buy this it will cost in Danish krone it's 1.7 million we paid for this. And if you are just on the other side of the block, buy the same size would be five to six million. So it's yeah...".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "Two or three times".

MADS: "Two or three times the price, yeah".

HAMISH MACDONALD: They have a word in Danish, 'Hygge'. It doesn't have a direct translation but it means cosiness and togetherness, in good company. And somehow that seems to have shaped the way they think about housing.

MADS: "Somehow we have made a world where average people are not able to buy a house and that's... I think that's wrong. It's not that I am against the market. I have my own business, of course I'm driven by selling stuff. But for me, it doesn't make sense that you cannot buy an apartment in whatever city, if you're not a billionaire".

HAMISH MACDONALD: In Denmark we've found a place with a genuinely different approach to things. In Australia, we're probably unlikely to ever adopt the Danish way, but before I leave, I want to find out if there's a lesson we can take from them.

Esben is a political scientist. He's thinking a lot about how cities can work in a sustainable and affordable way.

"Is it not just about how much it costs but also how we live?"

ESBEN: "Definitely. I think it is, because I mean if you feel like you can live in a city where you have a lot of options in terms of going out into the streets and doing things, then you are also more inclined to live in a smaller apartment and you are also just happier and maybe living in an apartment that doesn't meet all your requirement in terms of space, in terms of having a balcony, in terms of having a garden, all these things, coz you could go outside and you get some of those needs in the city, on the streets".

HAMISH MACDONALD: "So how do you get a point where there is the political will, there is the societal will to fix these problems?"

ESBEN: "Danish politics, in general, has been characterised by a lot of cross-sectional collaboration and a strong government, but a strong government that has also been highly engaged in partnerships outside of government. And that has created a culture of actually trying to fix these solutions together, instead of fixing them in silos".

HAMISH MACDONALD: So there you have it. We are all in this together. It might even be time to sort it out.

SONG LYRIC: "We are all in this together!"

JAMES MURRAY: It's really important to emphasise there's no silver bullet".

KIM LAUDRUP: "We are all in that same boat. We are on the same boat".