Latest news with #HousingAustralia
News.com.au
14-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Jim Chalmers backs 1.2 million Housing Accords goal, says Australia needs ‘ambition' to solve housing crisis
Jim Chalmers has doubled down on Labor's ability to build 1.2 million homes by June 30, 2029, after accidentally published advice from Treasury said the deadline would not be met. Partially unredacted files released to the ABC through a Freedom of Information request showed Treasury warning that the National Housing Accords would 'not be met,' and suggested a review of Housing Australia, the national housing agency. While Labor has committed to building 1.2 million well-located homes in the five years to June 30, 2029, the target is already 55,300 homes behind following its first year of operation. Recent data compiled by the Institute of Public Affairs has also revealed that in the decade between 2014 to 2024, the time it took to build a freestanding home had increased 50 per cent, from 8.5 months to 12.7 months. In the same period the cost of building materials had also soared by 53 per cent. Despite the slow start, Mr Chalmers backed Labor's ability to reach the target, adding that he was 'pretty relaxed' about the accidental FOI slip. 'Under current trajectories, we would fall short. But that doesn't mean that between now and over the course of the next four years, that we can't consider ways and work with the states and territories and others, local governments and others, on ways to build more homes,' he told reporters on Monday. While he acknowledged the government needs to 'do more' and 'do better' to reach the 1.2 million figure, he said the ambition was warranted given that housing is one of the 'defining challenges in our economy'. 'It's not the worst thing from time to time for it to be understood in the broader community that this will be a difficult target to meet,' he said. 'But if we all do our bit, we all play our part, as the Commonwealth has been willing to play, then we can build the homes that people desperately need.' Acting Coalition housing spokesman James Paterson said the advice from Treasury has 'confirmed what Australians already know'. 'Labor will fail to build the 1.2 million new homes they promised,' he said. 'Under the former Coalition Government, Australia built an average of 190,000 new homes per year. Under Labor, that figure has dropped to barely 170,000. To meet their own housing target, Labor needs to build 250,000 new homes annually. 'Instead of building housing, Labor are obsessed with building housing bureaucracies.' Housing Minister Clare O'Neil has previously vowed to cut red tape and regulation to supercharge the number of homes coming onto the market. Like Mr Chalmers, she said the Productivity Roundtable in August would help identify ways to improve planning policy. 'It's just too hard to build a house in this country because we're not innovating enough and because we don't have the workforce we need,' she told the ABC earlier this month. 'So, the roundtable in August is going to be a really important opportunity for me and other people in this sector to come forward and say we need to make some big decisions about how we are going to shift those dynamics so we can get better housing outcomes for Australians.' Sharing more details of the highly-anticipated talks in August, Mr Chalmers said business leaders, unions and regulators would be asked to focus on resilience, productivity and sustainability across the three days. RBA governor Michele Bullock will speak on the first day of talks, while Productivity Commissioner Danielle Wood and Treasury Secretary Jenny Wilkinson will respectively take charge of days three and four.
Sydney Morning Herald
16-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Apartments get green light despite breaching Victoria's liveability rules
'Last year, it was 20,000 short. Missing targets by such a margin puts great pressure to approve high-density developments, even if they are of questionable quality,' Hayward said. The Greensborough tower, developed by Greensborough Central Investments, will feature more than 200 one- and two-bedroom apartments, to be rented out below market rates. Together Housing, a newly registered community housing provider, secured federal government funding through Housing Australia to deliver the community housing at the site. Planning documents reveal Kilkenny approved the project despite its variation from the state's apartment design standards, which mandate minimum sizes for bedrooms and living rooms. The development also falls short on stipulated total storage requirements for some apartments. Despite the non-compliance, the government's assessment of the Greensborough project said the units were 'generously sized' and provided a 'high level of internal amenity', and therefore met the guidelines' objectives. It did not reveal how many of the 200 apartments had bedrooms and living rooms smaller than standard, or give further information on why the deviation was deemed acceptable. The apartment design guidelines allow developers to propose alternative solutions, which the government then assesses against the guidelines' objectives. A government spokesperson said up to a quarter of the homes would be social housing, with the remainder affordable housing for 25 years. The apartments ranged from 50.5 square metres to 76.3 square metres, and met minimum internal storage volume requirements, the spokesperson said. They did not directly address a question asking why the government approved the project despite it not meeting minimum room sizes. Tetris, a company that invests in and helps deliver social and affordable housing and has links to the Greensborough project, said it looked forward to the homes becoming available for people in urgent need of such housing. But Greensborough resident and real estate agent Wayne Hutchinson said the development had locals' 'blood pressure boiling', and he feared the suburb would be stuck with low-quality housing. 'It will be visible from just about every part of Greensborough and change it forever,' he said. 'The community was not consulted in any way and only found out about it after it was approved. No one denies that we need more appropriate housing, but make sure it's done appropriately. It should not be done in stealth.' YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) lead organiser Jonathan O'Brien said it was reasonable to deviate from the standards for homes in a suitable location where people wanted to live. 'We know that construction costs are super-high at the moment, and we know that we want to deliver affordable housing. Australia builds some of the biggest apartments and houses in the world – if we want more affordable options, we might need to deliver less expensive apartments that people can choose to live in,' he said. Loading 'The best outcome is that people have homes, and if the homes are slightly smaller than a set of standards made for brand-new market housing then I think that's a fair trade-off.' Separately, documents obtained through freedom-of-information laws by the state opposition raise fresh concerns about the government's plans to redevelop 44 public housing towers, a process that has already seen demolition begin at Carlton's Elgin Street and relocations under way in North Melbourne, Flemington, South Yarra and Richmond. Meeting minutes from Homes Victoria last year show the board noted the complexity of the redevelopment project, which it said needed a tailored approach for each site, but noted lowering the unit price was a priority. The documents also show the government is looking at ways it can alter the specifications of Homes Victoria's new low- and medium-density units to make them cheaper. Emeritus Professor Hayward said he was increasingly concerned that the government's primary focus was its growth objectives for social and affordable housing, with tenant wellbeing and quality design taking a backseat. Liberal MP David Davis accused the Allan government of planning its social housing projects 'on the cheap, slashing quality and looking at yield beyond the long-term viability'. 'People expect more, Victorians expect more from their government than cheap, nasty shoddy builds,' he said. A spokesperson for Housing Minister Harriet Shing said all homes delivered by the state government would meet or exceed minimum design standards, including bedroom and living sizes. 'When the Liberals aren't blocking the delivery of new homes for Victorians who deserve the same opportunity of home ownership that their parents had, they are cutting corners and dudding consumers,' the spokesperson said.
The Age
16-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
Apartments get green light despite breaching Victoria's liveability rules
'Last year, it was 20,000 short. Missing targets by such a margin puts great pressure to approve high-density developments, even if they are of questionable quality,' Hayward said. The Greensborough tower, developed by Greensborough Central Investments, will feature more than 200 one- and two-bedroom apartments, to be rented out below market rates. Together Housing, a newly registered community housing provider, secured federal government funding through Housing Australia to deliver the community housing at the site. Planning documents reveal Kilkenny approved the project despite its variation from the state's apartment design standards, which mandate minimum sizes for bedrooms and living rooms. The development also falls short on stipulated total storage requirements for some apartments. Despite the non-compliance, the government's assessment of the Greensborough project said the units were 'generously sized' and provided a 'high level of internal amenity', and therefore met the guidelines' objectives. It did not reveal how many of the 200 apartments had bedrooms and living rooms smaller than standard, or give further information on why the deviation was deemed acceptable. The apartment design guidelines allow developers to propose alternative solutions, which the government then assesses against the guidelines' objectives. A government spokesperson said up to a quarter of the homes would be social housing, with the remainder affordable housing for 25 years. The apartments ranged from 50.5 square metres to 76.3 square metres, and met minimum internal storage volume requirements, the spokesperson said. They did not directly address a question asking why the government approved the project despite it not meeting minimum room sizes. Tetris, a company that invests in and helps deliver social and affordable housing and has links to the Greensborough project, said it looked forward to the homes becoming available for people in urgent need of such housing. But Greensborough resident and real estate agent Wayne Hutchinson said the development had locals' 'blood pressure boiling', and he feared the suburb would be stuck with low-quality housing. 'It will be visible from just about every part of Greensborough and change it forever,' he said. 'The community was not consulted in any way and only found out about it after it was approved. No one denies that we need more appropriate housing, but make sure it's done appropriately. It should not be done in stealth.' YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) lead organiser Jonathan O'Brien said it was reasonable to deviate from the standards for homes in a suitable location where people wanted to live. 'We know that construction costs are super-high at the moment, and we know that we want to deliver affordable housing. Australia builds some of the biggest apartments and houses in the world – if we want more affordable options, we might need to deliver less expensive apartments that people can choose to live in,' he said. Loading 'The best outcome is that people have homes, and if the homes are slightly smaller than a set of standards made for brand-new market housing then I think that's a fair trade-off.' Separately, documents obtained through freedom-of-information laws by the state opposition raise fresh concerns about the government's plans to redevelop 44 public housing towers, a process that has already seen demolition begin at Carlton's Elgin Street and relocations under way in North Melbourne, Flemington, South Yarra and Richmond. Meeting minutes from Homes Victoria last year show the board noted the complexity of the redevelopment project, which it said needed a tailored approach for each site, but noted lowering the unit price was a priority. The documents also show the government is looking at ways it can alter the specifications of Homes Victoria's new low- and medium-density units to make them cheaper. Emeritus Professor Hayward said he was increasingly concerned that the government's primary focus was its growth objectives for social and affordable housing, with tenant wellbeing and quality design taking a backseat. Liberal MP David Davis accused the Allan government of planning its social housing projects 'on the cheap, slashing quality and looking at yield beyond the long-term viability'. 'People expect more, Victorians expect more from their government than cheap, nasty shoddy builds,' he said. A spokesperson for Housing Minister Harriet Shing said all homes delivered by the state government would meet or exceed minimum design standards, including bedroom and living sizes. 'When the Liberals aren't blocking the delivery of new homes for Victorians who deserve the same opportunity of home ownership that their parents had, they are cutting corners and dudding consumers,' the spokesperson said.
The Guardian
16-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Not enough houses are being built in Australia, and Labor has promised 1.2m more. Here's what needs to happen
Housing construction is falling behind both on estimates of demand and the government's target of building 1.2m homes in five years, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Experts have cited a number of reasons for the shortfall, including labour and materials shortages, slow and complex planning processes and high interest rates. But some of these factors may be cyclical – meaning construction could pick up and meet the targets as pandemic-related shortages disappear and planning reforms come in. The number of dwellings that commenced or finished construction were both down in December on previous quarters, and well below levels seen a few years ago. Around 57,000 new homes would need to be built every quarter between 2024 and 2029 to meet the government's targets. Just over 43,000 a quarter are needed just to meet estimates of new housing demand from Housing Australia. At current rates, we are around 20,000 houses below that target – and close to 30,000 houses below the government's Housing Accord goal. The government's aim to build 1.2m homes is ambitious, says Joey Moloney, deputy program director of Grattan Institute's housing and economic security program. 'That said, an ambitious target is absolutely the right thing to do.' 'It's looked more ambitious since it got announced because the construction sector has entered a downswing.' This can be seen in the data – the number of dwellings approved and construction commenced has fallen every year since 2021-22. The number of dwellings finished is picking up, but still below the highs of last decade. There are both long and short-term drivers of this trend. Supply chain problems have recently driven up material costs, says Prof Martin Loosemore from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), but 'prices are stabilising'. But Loosemore says the real issues hampering supply are matters such as skill shortages, the time and cost for getting planning approvals, and a lack of innovation in the industry. Productivity in dwelling construction has been stagnant for 30 years, in part because the industry is very fragmented. '[Construction] has the highest number of independent contractors of any industry by a long way,' says Loosemore. On the other side of the ledger, forecasting demand can be tricky. Labor's Housing Accord targeted 1.2m homes over five years, which is about 20% more than was built in 2014-19 (the last five-year period before the pandemic). But Moloney says there's no one number we could shoot for to alleviate housing pressures. 'Housing demand is a funny thing,' he says. 'It's not really as simple as how many people are coming into the country and how many are going to fit into each house. People economise on their house. So depending on housing costs people will move into bigger [or] smaller houses.' 'There is no 'enough'. 'We just need to be fixing these problems and an ambitious target isn't, 'This is the number that fixes the problem', it's just [about] creating the impetus for the actual underlying reforms needed to lift housing construction in the country.' One of those factors needing reform is the labour market. Over the past few years, construction has faced some of the biggest labour shortages of any industry. In 2023 the Master Builders Association estimated almost 500,000 workers were needed by 2026. But Moloney says its not as simple as bringing in more construction workers through the immigration system. 'It's much more complicated than just like, push a button, get more construction workers. There's heaps of different visa classes that workers [can use] to come into the country [but those] programs prioritise tertiary educated professionals. '[They are] not something that it's easy to get construction workers through.' On top of this, Moloney notes that migrants are actually less likely to work in construction than other sectors – construction workers are more likely to have been born in Australia. According to Moloney and Loosemore, necessary reforms include things like making it easier to recognise overseas qualifications, helping more Australians get into apprenticeships and project management training.
