UDIA National President Simon Basheer was interviewed by the Australian Financial Review in response to findings that local authorities must ensure facilities are available to early residents of new housing developments.
In response:
The cost of meeting infrastructure taxes and charges keeps rising, gets baked into the cost of new housing and is ultimately absorbed by homebuyers – so it fails to help with affordability,” said Simon Basheer, Urban Development Institute of Australia national president.
“Likewise, the regime hasn’t always supported the delivery of timely, quality and essential infrastructure that new or evolving communities depend on. There has long been a case for reducing the overall burden carried by homebuyers via infrastructure taxes and charges, and moving to more efficient and equitable broad-based revenue sources that better guarantee delivery of outcomes.
UDIA National has long advocated for reductions in upfront infrastructure contributions and taxes to reduce the cost burden for initial purchasers.
The full article may be accessed (with AFR subscription) at: https://www.afr.com/property/residential/fix-developer-contributions-get-better-apartment-complexes-20200526-p54wfx