The National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC’s) State of the Nation Report shows national housing supply is being held back from a range of factors, including a lack of serviced land and ongoing opposition to development. It is yet another in a long stream of calls to address this burgeoning crisis. This is not the time for the Senate to be blocking support for additional housing supply.
The NHFIC Report confirms that new housing supply will fall well short of demand for housing and will fall well short of the Commonwealth’s commitments. The Report is yet another call to action for three levels of Government to work to address failing housing supply.
The NHFIC Report identifies the following impediments to housing supply:
- Interest rates
- Availability of serviced land
- Ongoing community opposition to development
- Long lead times for delivering new supply.
Industry commentators have variously called for more social housing, more affordable housing, and the need to overcome community opposition to new housing supply. This is reflected by the NHFIC Reports own commentary. All of these things are correct and well-meant. But the biggest handbrake on housing supply is the state-based planning systems.
The complexity and time required to comply with the obligations of the planning systems across Australia, with the worst case being that of NSW, is resulting in many projects that might have been feasible 18 months ago, now being marginal or simply unfeasible. Interest rates have gone up, resulting in exactly what they were designed to achieve and reducing demand. In contrast, labour shortages and construction materials have dramatically increased in price.
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