Master Builders: More houses key to affordability
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Master Builders Australia (MBA) have released an eight-point plan to make housing more affordable throughout Australia, with increased housing supply being a key pillar. Anyone who makes their living using cherry pickers and other construction tools will want to take note.
A recent Senate inquiry into affordable housing saw MBA give their take on what could help offset Australia's ballooning house prices, urging reform.
"Reducing the massive shortfall in new housing is the major challenge the nation faces in maintaining home ownership as a realistic aspiration rather than an unaffordable dream," said MBA Chief Executive Wilhelm Harnisch in an August 1 media release.
"Master Builders' eight-point Affordability Agenda addressing the structural barriers to increasing the housing supply are set out in our submission to the Inquiry chaired by Senator Sam Dastyari."
Some of the points in the agenda include increasing the supply of releasable land by introducing national competition payments to local councils, as well as creating a more efficient approvals process for building and planning.
The latter could benefit firms and workers by reducing red tape and preventing delays that can come out of the process for approvals.
MBA's agenda would also require all councils to develop Land Release Plans to create a schedule for making greenfield and brownfield land available for housing development.
The suggestions provided are timely, given the still rising home prices around Australia's capitals. The latest RP Data-Rismark Hedonic Home Value Index for July has revealed that capital city house prices grew by 1.1 per cent over the three months to July, putting the total increase over the preceding year to 5 per cent.
This puts Sydney's median house price at $650,000, while Melbourne, Perth, Darwin and Canberra all crossed the $500,000 mark.
If there's a silver lining to this, it's that it may well lead to more homes being built to satisfy the demand for housing.
