How mixed-use development can bring cities to life 24-7
Tom Forrest is CEO of Urban Taskforce Australia, representing some 120 leading property developers and equity financiers. He tells new podcast series Face to Face that developers often get “a bad rap” and offers a mixed-use to help the housing crisis.
HOUSE prices are an Aussie dinner party staple, and when talk turns to unaffordability the blame is sometimes heaped on “greedy property developers.”
Tom Forrest says that’s a bum rap. The CEO of peak industry organisation Urban Taskforce Australia concedes a few cowboys have produced bad headlines.
“Some of the members of the property sector don’t particularly help our own reputation,” he told Australian Conveyancer’s Face to Face.
“But the fact of the matter is, 95 per cent plus of the property developers in Australia are high quality, reputable organisations.”
They include some of Australia’s biggest, publicly listed companies, spearheading an industry that employs 10 per cent of the workforce.
Not just builders and tradies, but those in sales and marketing, and maintenance. “It’s a very significant component of the economy,” Forrest says.
“Frankly, without property developers building the houses, we’d be reliant upon the government to build them all.
“We’d have social housing for everyone. I don’t think that’s a positive option.”
And, he adds, it’s not in developers’ interests to build housing few can afford.
“I think the idea that developers are making rapacious profits is just wrong. It’s a misconception.
“I think property developers would be delighted to build as many houses as is feasible to build. But if they’re going to lose money, they’re not going to build them.”
Among the challenges are higher costs of raw materials and a shortage of skilled workers.
And in recent years, much of the blame lies with government: “fees, taxes, charges, overregulation, restrictions on zoning.”
That’s changing thanks to the National Housing Accord which calls for 1.2 million new homes by 2029.
With only 825,000 projected, Forrest argues more needs to be done.
“We’re pleased that the government’s been listening, but we need to see more slashing of the red tape, costs, extra fees, taxes and charges.
“What really happens is they get passed on to the end consumer.”
He’s hailed rezoning around Sydney’s Burwood North Metro station, which would allow 18,300 new homes.
Another change he’s keen on is more mixed-use development. That is, housing not just above shops and offices, but over say, car dealerships.
“Why shouldn’t they be co-located? They are in every other country,” Forrest argues.
“In Japan, pretty much you’re allowed to put whatever retail you like on the ground floor, and then it can have housing above.
“That’s why all the way through Tokyo, it’s alive. 24 hours of every day.”
