Mainstream wisdom has it that the tax break for landlords known as negative gearing is also good for tenants.  After all, lower landlord costs equal lower rents, right?  And if that’s not true, then at least it has expanded the amount of rental housing, resulting in lower rents, yeah?  In 2011, our friends at The Brown Couch explained why both are not necessarily true.  More recently, the argument has arisen that the cessation of negative gearing in 1985-87 resulted in skyrocketing rents.  This week, Leith Van Onselen from Macroeconomics debunked this myth too.  Maybe it’s time for a new way to tackle unaffordable residential tenancies in Australia.