30 January 2010
Home ownership is increasingly out of reach of Sydneysiders, according to the Urban Taskforce.
The Taskforces chief executive, Aaron Gadiel, said that the prospect of home ownership was receding into the distance for far too many people.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that 64 per cent of Sydney households own their own home down from 70 per cent at the beginning of the decade, Mr Gadiel said.
Sydneys level of home ownership is now lower than every Australian capital city, bar Darwin.
Were now seeing the harsh social impact of a lack of new home development.
In the 1990s, work started on 44,000 new private homes in NSW each year, but in this decade, work has started on an average of only 36,000 new private homes a year.
Last financial year, work started on only 23,000 new homes in NSW.
Mr Gadiel said that less Sydneysiders have been able to own their own home, while the reverse has been true in Brisbane.
In Queensland, despite its much lower population base, work has started on an average of 37,000 new homes each year this decade.
On a per capita-basis, Queensland has been producing new homes at more than twice the rate of NSW.
As a result, less Brisbane residents are forced to rent, while the reverse is true in Sydney.
69 per cent of Brisbane households own their own home up from 63 per cent at the beginning of the decade, Mr Gadiel said.
All levels of government need to work together to boost the rate of new home development in Sydney.
This means having a state planning system capable of quickly approving major projects, without approvals being held hostage by not-in-my-backyard activists.
We need to see local council levies in line with other states – rather than the $30,000 – $60,000 we are seeing for each home now.
We need the Federal Government to invest in Sydneys urban infrastructure, to help ease the way to more housing development.
Otherwise the social costs higher rents and more tenuous living arrangements for families – will be too high to bear.
The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.
For every $1 million in construction expenditure, 27 jobs are created throughout the broader economy.
The construction activity made possible by property developers contributes $78 billion to the national economy each year and creates 849,000 direct jobs
