Plan will boost housing supply, industry leaders say
The national cabinet's housing plan has been met with approval by leaders in the property industry, who see it as a crucial step in addressing the growing demand for new properties in Australia.
Current forecasts indicate a significant decline in construction, making the government's target of building 1.2 million homes over the next five years both ambitious and necessary, according to a report by The Australian.
Jocelyn Martin, deputy managing director of the Housing Industry Association, told The Australian that economic indicators pointed to a slowdown in the commencement of new homes.
“Since the first increase in the cash rate, sales of new homes have fallen sharply and are 41.8% lower than at the same time last year and 26.2% lower than at the same time in 2019,” Martin said.
Denita Wawn, the chief executive of Master Builders Australia, lauded the national cabinet plan as a "game-changer" that will boost housing supply. According to MBA forecasts, Australia needs a minimum of 200,000 dwellings built each year to meet demand.
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“We need to go to the root of the supply problem, getting projects off the ground which are lagging due to a combination of high costs, a declining investment appetite from rising interest rates, and delays in approvals,” Wawn told The Australian.
Wawn stressed the importance of addressing the supply problem, including tackling high costs, declining investment appetite due to rising interest rates, and delays in approvals.
Mike Zorbas, the chief executive of the Property Council of Australia, expressed support for a commitment to strategic and sustainable planning of cities, taking into account population growth and aiming for coordination at the state and territory level. Zorbas told The Australian that national cabinet is addressing the housing supply deficit in a coordinated manner, which, if successful, will improve access to housing for all Australians.
Campbell Hanan, the head of property development company Mirvac, emphasised the need to boost the construction workforce to meet the federal government's housing target. He told The Australian that the current finite number of construction workers in Australia are being pulled in two directions – infrastructure projects and housing construction. Hanan suggested that skilled immigration in the construction industry could alleviate some of the challenges.
Hanan also stressed the importance of new planning regulations supporting a mix of housing, including affordable apartments, build-to-rent developments, and land lease developments.
“Certainly when we look at the affordability of an apartment relative to a house we think that’s going to change the nature over time of how people think about apartment living,” he told The Australian. “We think build-to-rent is just another typology that allows people the security of tenure over a long period of time, which is really important for stability of rental markets.”
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