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Urban Taskforce Australia CEO, Tom Forrest, today said the property development and construction sector are looking to the Commonwealth to commit to a significant boost in housing related infrastructure in tonight’s budget.
The Commonwealth’s commitment to the Housing Accord targets is under scrutiny from the private sector. The latest data published by the ABS showed that in the 2024 September quarter, there were only 43,328 new dwellings commenced (seasonally adjusted). The real concern comes from the annualised data. In the 12 months until the completion of the September quarter, there were only 161,557 new homes commenced.
The Housing Accord targets require 240,000 to be completed each year.
This gap is a call for action in tonight’s budget.
The Minns Government in NSW has shown the way with a new centralised planning assessment and determination pathway for high value, high yield housing projects. The NSW Housing Delivery Authority has sparked more interest from the private sector in housing supply than any of the soporific housing related media releases by the Albanese Government.
For many years, planning has been the bottle neck. But the states have taken the problem seriously and the real problem is now shifting to infrastructure. You can’t bring in hundreds of thousands of migrants into Australia, as the Commonwealth has done, without investing in housing related infrastructure. That is what we are looking for in tonight’s budget.
Urban Taskforce calls for a solid boost to infrastructure funding as well as a fast track for a business case light assessment so major roads, transport, water and public open space infrastructure can be built in time to service the Housing Accord commitments.
Urban Taskforce calls on Treasurer Jim Chalmers to deliver:
- $24 billion of additional (new) infrastructure funding to be spent over four years for housing related infrastructure with a requirement that the states reduce development infrastructure charges on housing supply commensurately, thus reducing the purchase price for new homes.
- A fresh round of HAFF funding to support the delivery of social and affordable housing.
- Financial incentives for the states to reduce fees, taxes and charges (including affordable housing taxes) that are driving up the cost of new housing, making new home prices and rents unaffordable.
- Bring the $3 billion payments to the states for the Housing Accord New Home Bonus forward to immediately enable the states to boost their own housing related infrastructure to be funded (rather than being paid in July 2029, after whatever housing the states can manage to see built has already been completed).
The Commonwealth has already announced a range of piecemeal support for infrastructure projects, the Help to Buy scheme, and for increasing the states regulation and take up of prefabricated homes – but to date, it has all been pretty under-whelming.
Tonight’s budget is a chance to put the wow factor back into the Commonwealth Budget and show the Albanese Government is fully committed to the Housing Accord, to improving housing and rental affordability, and to boosting housing supply for all Australians.
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The comments and analysis above can be attributed to Tom Forrest, CEO, Urban Taskforce Australia.