The government’s goal of building one million private homes and 40,000 social and affordable homes in the next five years should not be abandoned and is the correct path to ensuring that housing supply in Australia is able to keep up with demand, according to Housing Industry Association policy and industry deputy managing director Jocelyn Martin.
“Passage of the Housing Australia’s Future Fund Bill 2023 is an important step toward addressing ongoing decline of housing affordability across Australia,” said Ms Martin.
“An inadequate supply of additional housing over many years has led to a situation where there is intense competition to secure housing, amongst limited options. The intense competition is evident across the spectrum of the housing market.
“Tackling housing affordability starts with making the supply of housing a national priority and improving affordability can enable more households to own their own homes.
“Housing Australia’s Future Fund Bill 2023 is an important step toward achieving this goal.
“To abandon the plan to build the one million private and 40,000 social houses, will mean Australians will undoubtably face higher rents and pay more when buying a house in the future, as supply falls well short of the dedicated target.
“Building 200,000 new homes per year will not be sufficient to satisfy the enormous, and growing, demand for homes across Australia.
“All sides of politics should view the passing of the housing the Housing Australia Future Fund bill as the first step in a long journey to bring affordability and housing supply under control.
“Private and social housing work hand in hand, the more homes on the private market mean cheaper rents for those that can’t afford to buy a house but want to save for one.
“The Federal Government’s housing bill is is a good, solid start to ensuring access to a home even though it may not be the answer to all the problems that are facing the housing industry now.
“The bill will not only enable more homes to be built in Australia, but it also seeks to create important advisory bodies such as the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, that will advise government on how and where to create more housing supply.
“It is important that the role of the Australian Government in addressing the affordability challenge continues to grow with the passage of this legislation.
“It should be supported by all the political players, housing affordability cannot be treated like a political football,” concluded Ms Martin.
