The Coalition government is set to provide $5 million through a Housing Infrastructure Programme
Building and construction industry association Master Builders Australia (MBA) has expressed its support for the Federal Opposition’s new housing policies which aims to boost the country’s housing supply.
Master Builders CEO Denita Wawn (pictured) shared that while the association believed that the housing crisis can be solved by more housing supplies, there were various hindrances that prevented the projects from coming into fruition.
“Over the last five years, construction costs have increased by 40% and build times have blown out by up to 47%. Labour shortages, access to water, sewerage, power and roads, union disruption, and red tape all significantly impact the final project cost and build time,” said Wawn.
The Opposition had also announced a freeze when it comes to the National Construction Code (NCC) along with a review of the NCC changes in order to identify possible options to reduce red tape even further.
Wawn said the pause on such code changes was a positive step because of what it entailed.
“The proposed review will provide an opportunity for industry to be heard on perverse outcomes of recent changes that were introduced without proper consideration of the evidence and the implementation hurdles facing builders,” she said.
The Coalition government had announced that it will be utilizing $5 billion when it comes to seeing the addition of more houses to the country’s supply through a new Housing Infrastructure Programme (HIP), with more than 500,000 homes expected to be delivered in a fast pace through grants and concessional loans.
“We know there are hundreds of greenfield sites across the country ready for development, but progress has been stalled due to a lack of funding for essential enabling infrastructure. Our approach is focussed on investing in enabling infrastructure to unlock the supply of shovel-ready new housing developments,” said Opposition leader Peter Dutton.
“This funding will be offered on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis. This means if there is no progress on successful projects within 12 months of contracting, then the funding will be terminated,” he said.
