Property Council boss says state governments need to act
Rezoning could be a simple fix for Australia’s housing affordability crisis, according to the president of the Property Council of Australia.
Speaking at the Property Congress in Hobart last week, David Harrison – who is also CEO of Charter Hall – discussed the issue, which could become important in the upcoming federal election, The Australian reported.
“It’s bloody simple – we’ve got to convince the state governments to rezone land,” Harrison said. “It’s the state governments, driven by a little bit of prodding from the federal government, which will help us get the supply we need.”
Tarun Gupta, chief executive of residential developer Stockland, said housing affordability was in crisis.
“In theory, I think housing affordability is the key issue for the nation,” Gupta said. “I think if you look at Sydney and Melbourne now … servicing a mortgage as a proportion of disposable income, it’s more in the red zone than amber.”
Harrison also said that Australians needed to stop worrying about the reopening of the nation’s borders, The Australian reported.
“We need to forget about all this rubbish about all the borders,” he said. “There’ll be no housing there for the existing Australian businesses. We need net migration; what we need is land that is rezoned and made available.”
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Affordability came up several times during the conference, The Australian reported. Another hot topic was whether the CBD office was still relevant in a post-COVID world.
Harrison said the government needed to be more realistic in its assessment of where people want to build homes.
“I think governments also need to get fair dinkum about where people want to live,” he said. “You know, they’re not all wanting to live in the outer suburbs, so we are going to need more medium-density policies in inner rings and middle rings, as well as a release of land for your house and land packages in the outer rings.”
