Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) 2025 State of the Land report shows an alarming 400,000 dwelling supply shortfall for the combined capital cities, based on UDIA forecasting of new market activity for the period to 2029.
Launched today at the UDIA 2025 National Congress, our flagship report provides a clear line of sight on the nation’s progress against the ambitious Federal Government target to build 1.2 million new homes over that period.
“The recommendations provided in our 2025 report for both State and Federal governments, present a roadmap of what needs to happen to expedite new dwelling supply, improve affordability and allow the industry to drive improved productivity,” said Col Dutton, UDIA National President.
A key insight from this year’s research, is that while there are some positive signs of improved supply activity in the national greenfield market, the apartment and multiunit sector remains mired in a near record low levels of output, which is weighing heavily on aggregate dwelling production. Housing supply shortages are set to continue due to elevated (and still growing) material input costs, labour shortages, combined with high inflation leading to cost of living pressures and interest rate rises.
New dwelling growth has consistently undershot population growth over the last 20 years, creating a serious shortage of national housing supply which underpins the current rental and housing affordability crisis. UDIA forecasts of an 11% decline in new dwelling production in 2025 will continue to put upward price pressure across all residential product types.
As a result, Australia’s housing crisis will deepen over the year ahead as the national development sector continues to navigate the multi-faceted challenges of high construction costs, paucity of skilled labour & workforce availability, the lack of ‘development ready’ land supply and high development site holding costs.
Source UDIA
“Our 2025 UDIA State of the Land report provides the critical insights & recommendations for Government to focus policy reform on boosting development ready land supply and providing coordinated infrastructure servicing. This is critical to any hopes of achieving the broadly held ambition to permanently ease housing affordability and improve dwelling delivery across the nation,” said Col Dutton.
Our full UDIA 2025 State of the Land report can be found at this link https://udia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/State-Of-The-Land-Report-2025-Final-Report_.pdf
Our Key Headline Stats Pack can be found at this link
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