20 August 2010
The Urban Taskforce welcomed todays promise by the Coalition to introduce a National Home Affordability Compact if its elected to government this weekend.
Our national housing shortfall is now 178,000 homes, with a projection for it to grow to 308,000 dwellings over the next four years, Mr Gadiel said.
Everyday Australians are losing out on the opportunity to own their own home.
This problem can only be resolved through strong federal leadership and the proposed National Home Affordability Compact is a positive first step.
Mr Gadiel said the proposed Compact will give the Federal Government an ability to demand increases land supply from state planning authorities.
It will mean great accountability for state and local government who fail to deliver against nationally agreed benchmarks, he said.
According to the Coalitions policy, the National Home Affordability Compact will contain housing targets for each State or Territory over five years. In order to continue to receive federal funds, states and territories will need to increase land supply and reform their planning and approval systems. States and territories will need to set affordability targets to guide land supply and dwelling approvals. In order to receive federal funds, states and territories would need to demonstrate that they had a plan for delivering these targets and those approvals and land is made available consistent with the targets established.
Mr Gadiel also welcomed the Coalitions promise to tackle state, territory and local development levies.
These levies have become utterly unsustainable, he said. They can amount to many tens of thousands of dollars and price homes out of the reach of everyday Australians.
The Henry tax review criticised levies that were complex, non-transparent or set too high and said they discourage investment in housing, lower the overall supply of housing and raise its price.
The most recent assessment from the National Housing Supply Council warned that planning approval and development assessment processes generally add time, uncertainty and costs to the development process.
They said the constraints would make it difficult to supply enough housing in south-east Queensland, Melbourne, NSW and Perth.
Mr Gadiel said the shortage makes housing more expensive than it needs to be.
A massive 37 per cent of low-income renter households are officially in rental stress”that is, they are paying more than 30 per cent of their gross household income in rent, Mr Gadiel said.
Just 28 per cent of homes sold are currently affordable to moderate-income households.
Were seeing increased homelessness, overcrowding, and adult children remaining at home for longer periods.
The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.
