Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) welcomes the 4.6% increase in dwelling commencements revealed in today’s Australian Bureau of Statistics data, but the quarterly figures show that Australia is still 28% behind the housing starts needed to reach our National Housing Accord target set in 2022.
“Now more than ever, Australia’s political leadership needs to accelerate housing delivery with initiatives that not only build on affordable and social housing commitments, but also boost median priced housing for all Australians,” said Oscar Stanley, National Vice President, Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA).
A key consideration for Government is that 97% of the Accord target relies on the private sector to close the gap and deliver the required dwellings.
We critically need the following measures:
- Incentivise homes for all Australians through tax credits to take the burden of housing delivery off Government and encourage construction of median priced houses by the private sector.
- Offer the Housing Accord bonus incentives upfront so that States and Territories can leverage critical housing supply.
- Establish a $5bn Federal Government fund dedicated to enabling infrastructure to unlock housing in areas of low supply.
- Streamline and incentivise planning timeframes to boost productivity.
- Address the shortfall of skilled construction labour we require to boost our industry’s ailing capacity to meet the Housing Target demands.
“While we are currently facing an ever-increasing housing supply gap across Australia, we require all levels of Government to prioritise implementing bold initiatives such as these to enable industry and build the homes Australians deserve,” said Mr Stanley.
Source ABS, UDIA
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