21 December 2011
The release of the annual figures by the National Housing Supply Council today shows Australia is slipping backwards in terms of the supply of new housing, says the Urban Taskforce.
New South Wales was bottom of the list with a short fall of 73,700 dwellings said Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson. The impact of shortfalls of this magnitude is to force prices up, making housing less affordable and to drive rents up as new housing is just not available.
While it is good to see the NSW government announcing 1,000 new housing lots at Penrith we will need another 73 such announcements to catch up with our shortfall. Mr Johnson said.
The Urban Taskforce has been raising concerns about housing supply for some time. Mr Johnson said This is not just a matter of zoning land for housing – our members are telling us that the planning system in NSW is very complex and slow, making it very difficult to get timely approvals for infill sites. For Greenfield sites high levies and council contributions are making many projects unfeasible.
Our members are telling us that as well as preparing economic feasibility studies for projects in NSW they are also preparing planning feasibility studies to determine if there is any likelihood of timely approvals.
Strong leadership is needed in metropolitan Sydney, in particular to ensure projects can be realised. Mr Johnson said.
The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.
