UDIA National welcomes today’s National Cabinet announcements which reinforce that the best way to combat rising rents and improve housing affordability is to create bold initiatives that boost supply.
“These are a suite of serious reforms that, if implemented properly, give us the best chance yet of delivering affordable homes and reasonable rentals,” said Max Shifman, UDIA National President.
Prime Minister Albanese announced several initiatives that will target acceleration of housing supply, including announcing an increased target of building 1.2 million new homes over 5 years from July 2024 onwards, a $3 billion New Home Bonus for states and territories which overperform on their share of the new home target, a Housing Support Program of $500 million targeted to local and state/territory governments to help with the “last mile” on projects to build housing and enabling infrastructure.
A National Planning Reform Blueprint will be introduced to help streamline and boost planning and zoning, as well as removing barriers to development approvals that will accelerate housing, including bolstering medium and higher density housing and rapid delivery of social and affordable housing.
Renters have been given stronger rights with the need for reasonable grounds for eviction and no more than one rental increase per year.
“UDIA National congratulates government and National Cabinet for listening to our concerns and setting a shared direction that can deliver new housing supply and better affordability in line with our advocacy platform,” said Mr Shifman.
National Cabinet is also considering the phased introduction of inclusionary zoning and planning to support permanent affordable, social and specialist housing in ways that do not add to construction costs. UDIA cautions that any such measures need extremely careful deliberation, to ensure that the desire to deliver one form of housing does not cannabalise another. All new initiatives must add to overall supply and avoid cross-subsidies from the market.
UDIA National remains confident that the housing affordability challenge can be solved with initiatives like these that harness the capacity of the development and construction industry, and Government alike. We remain excited to work with all levels of Government to implement these critical measures and continue with the job of delivering more housing for all Australians.
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Media Enquiries:
Deanna Lane | National Media & Communications Manager | 0416 295 898 | media@udia.com.au