National Accord five-year timeline should be doubled
Planning reform will take up to a decade to work through to the system, a property sector expert is warning.
THE five-year timeline for the National Accord needs to be pushed out – and turned into a decade-long initiative.
That’s the verdict of Charter Keck Cramer’s Richard Temlett who analysed the target set by the government based on the need for 90,000 extra tradies working on the residential sector.
Building 240,000 new dwellings per year, Australian states and territories would need to deliver record levels of new dwellings over the five-year period from 2024-2025, according to the property investment expert.
“It is our view that a five-year window to rebalance the housing market, whilst well intentioned, is simply not realistic,” he said.
“Many changes at the planning level alone will take 1-2 market cycles (7-10 years minimum) to flow through once implemented.
“This is also assuming that the housing market is not dislocated as it currently is, which means it will almost certainly take even longer to occur.”
Explaining his reasoning, he says: “For context, at peak years of supply in FY 2017, there were around 220,000 new dwellings delivered in Australia.
“During this time both the greenfield and apartment markets were extremely active, and this was underpinned by foreign and local investors and lower tax settings.
“Critically, we were also at a very different point in the housing market and economic cycle and did not have a costs of delivery crisis preventing the feasible delivery of new product.
“To achieve these aspirations Australia desperately needs tax reform, labour reform, planning reform and immigration reform.
“We also need political consensus and bipartisan support at all levels of Government and across all political parties that transcend electoral cycles.”
He acknowledged state governments were starting to take the right steps with respect to planning reform but, he said: “More needs to be done in this space.”
Tax, labour and immigration reform also need to be addressed so that the housing system is ready for the next 50 years, he added.
The problem around red tape is an issue that has been acknowledged by Housing Minister Clare O’Neil, who admitted that tradies had “a ridiculous thicket of red tape that is preventing them building the homes we need.
“If we are going to address the housing needs of Australians, it is going to require the three levels of government to work together in new ways,” she said.
