Jacqui Lambie's radical overhaul to rewrite the rules on real estate - and end Australia's housing crisis

Independent senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock have demanded a crackdown on foreign ownership in a bid to ease Australia's housing crisis.

The crossbench senators are pushing the Labor government to implement changes to negative gearing and to reduce investment property tax concessions.

They said their proposed changes could net up to $60billion over a decade that could instead be spent on social and affordable housing.  

The senators said they requested the Parliamentary Budget Office to examine five possible changes to capital tax concessions and negative gearing.  

'We need to start making sensible changes,' senator Pocock told the ABC.

'The major parties don't want to talk about tax reform in a housing crisis - but we have to.' 

The senators say their planned reforms include limiting capital gains tax discounts to investments and permitting property owners to maintain any existing arrangements.

They say this would protect current landlords, while aiming to prioritise existing homes for homebuyers over investors who can still buy into new builds instead.

'If you are negative gearing a house, you can grandfather what is already there before we make any changes,' senator Lambie said. 

Senator Pocock added: 'Going forward, you [would only get the] capital gains tax discount if you're investing in new supply.'

They also called for an end to foreign ownership, with fears overseas buyers are snapping up property, often by parents for their children while they study in Australia.

'The other thing we can be talking about which we're not, is foreign ownership,' said senator Lambie.

'Stop foreign ownership buying into our housing system. These are the sort of moves we need to make.'

Senator Lambie believes their planned reforms aren't a magic bullet to solve the housing crisis, but are necessary to reduce the current imbalance.

'We're giving so much tax out to people, tax relief out to people with these houses? It's getting past the point of ridiculous,' she said.

Senator Pocock is confident Australians would back their planned reforms.

'There's quite a bit of polling and research showing the majority of Australians actually support changes to our property system,' he said. 

The senators are now pushing the government to implement the reforms.

'They said they are going to provide so many thousands of houses over the 10 or 15 years, but that's not enough,' senator Lambie added.

'This is not going to stop the housing crisis. Show some courage and start making more moves on the game board.'