The next federal government is being urged to look to the northern hemisphere for possible solutions to Australia's housing and rental crises.
The Coalition and Labor have each used the election campaign to outline how they would help give people a leg up onto the property ladder, if elected on Saturday.
But University of New South Wales professor of housing research and policy Hal Pawson said longer-term solutions could be found in Scotland's housing policy.
"Scotland's strategy [has] got a huge amount of substance, very much in contrast to its Australian equivalent," Professor Pawson said.
"It properly defines the problems that it seeks to address [and] it proposes remedial actions that seem to address those problems.
"The NSW so-called housing strategy doesn't do any of those things."
Affordable housing and net-zero
Scotland's policy aims to deliver more affordable housing, tackle high rents and decarbonise homes while creating jobs.
"Housing to 2040" promises to build 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, with 70 per cent for social rent.
They will be carbon neutral, have digital connectivity and will be built in tandem with local infrastructure so they create so-called "20-minute neighbourhoods", where local services are a short drive away.
Scotland's 32 local authorities and housing providers will bid for a slice of 18 billion pounds in funding.
"To be blunt, it's about our political choice around [how we use] our capital funding," the country's cabinet secretary for housing, Shona Robison, said.
While it is an ambitious target, the country has form.
Since 2007, Scotland has built 108,000 affordable homes, with the majority for social rent.
"The spin-off benefit is that we can also link in our net-zero ambitions to make those homes more affordable in terms of the running costs of them and helping towards our net-zero climate change targets."
Affordable targets
Professor Pawson said in contrast, Australia had not properly invested in social and affordable housing for decades.
"It's about 25 years since Australia stopped having a routine annual public housing construction program," he said.
"Since 1996, our population has grown by 40 per cent and the social housing stock has grown by 4 per cent.
Ms Robison said her country's approach could be emulated elsewhere.
"I would recommend it as a program and a good investment that ticks a number of boxes," she said.
'No national approach'
Professor Pawson and other housing industry leaders say the lack of a national strategy is hurting Australia.
"I think it's partly about federal investment [and] I think it's also about federal leadership. We've had neither in the last few years," Professor Pawson said.
The head of NSW housing provider Housing Plus, David Fisher, agreed.
"The real barriers are the lack of a coherent plan at a national, state level that sets out clear objectives of how many properties, what type of properties and puts in place the right type of funding agreements that allow that to happen," he said.
Mr Fisher and Professor Pawson have criticised the NSW government's housing strategy, describing it as an "empty document" that fails to set out firm, costed targets.
A spokesperson for NSW Housing Minister Anthony Roberts said the state had increased its social housing by 10 per cent in the past decade.
The spokesperson said all tiers of government, as well as the private sector and communities, would need to work together to increase supply.
Professor Pawson also blames a lack of investment over the past 25 years for the situation Australia now finds itself in.
He said governments had created a system which was "overly preferential" of property ownership.
"The value of tax concessions to owner-occupiers and private landlords is around about $100 billion per year, it's a phenomenally large sum," he said.
"We're talking huge amounts of money there that are effectively a form of government support for parts of the housing market."
