Planning, taxes holding back affordable housing: report

Poor planning and high state and local taxes are impacting housing affordability and need to be urgently addressed.

That’s the conclusion of a new paper, A Stark Reality, released by the Property Council of Australia recently.

Chief executive Mike Zorbas said all three levels of government need to work more closely with industry to tackle the affordability crisis.

“Poor planning systems and mediocre policy choices continue to combine with high state and local taxes to further add to the cost of building each new home,” he said.

“Costly, overtaxed and delayed housing construction pipelines reduce the total supply of new dwellings including social, affordable and at-market homes as well as diverting investment from the future sustainability and resilience of our built environment.”

Between a third and 40 per cent of new housing construction costs are wrapped up in Federal, state and local government taxes, surcharges and levies, the report said, describing them as “lethal” to affordability.

A survey conducted as part of the research revealed 81 per cent of Australians believe there is a lack of affordable housing in their area.

It also showed 52 per cent of people rent as they have no other option and seven in 10 cite excessive deposit costs as the reason they won’t be able to buy a home in the next five years.

“The chronic incapacity of three levels of Australian government to ensure an adequate pipeline of supply for new homes and apartments has meant we are denying buyers and renters choice and opportunity, limiting social and economic mobility, and putting more pressure on the community and social housing sectors,” the report said.

Federal housing minister Julie Collins said it was a “stark reality.”

“We don’t have enough homes. We need to build more and we need to build them sooner, and I’m looking forward to getting on with the job,” she said at the report’s launch.

Ms Collins told parliament she would introduce to parliament a bill to set up the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund to support 30,000 new social and affordable dwellings over five years.

The minister described it as the “single largest investment in new, affordable and social homes in more than a decade”.

She will also introduce a bill to enshrine the independence of the advisory body, the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council.

The council has been given the job of reviewing barriers to institutional investment, finance and innovation in housing.

– BY PAUL OSBORNE/ AAP