Missing link in TV report on Australia’s housing plight
Peak body says 'when bad tax and policies cause supply shrinkage in one part of the system, pressure builds everywhere else'.
SERIOUS about addressing the housing affordability crisis? Stop taxing the daylights out of new homes and projects.
That is the view of Mike Zorbas, chief executive of the Property Council of Australia, following an ABC’s Four Corners report on Monday night.
Affordable housing and the Housing Australia Future Fund featured in the Four Corners episode, raising important questions about the definitions of housing and shining a light on the supply gap that remains across the provision of Australian housing from social through affordable to ‘at market’.
“You want more homes across the entire housing spectrum – social housing, affordable housing and at-market housing? Tax them less than four dollars in every 10 and therefore build more,” Zorbas said.
“When bad tax and policies cause supply shrinkage in one part of the system, pressure builds everywhere else. The same goes for the industrial and commercial assets our cities need.
“Affordable housing developments face exactly the same barriers confronting every other residential project.
“High construction costs, labour shortages, expensive finance, infrastructure charges and slow planning approvals all undermine project feasibility.
“And if Australia is to build at the scale required, we must attract more domestic and institutional investment alongside public funding.
“Four Corners missed the opportunity to inform its audience on Monday night.”
The Housing Australia Future Fund is a relatively young scheme that is becoming an important part of the solution to the nation’s housing crisis.
Zorbas said that while there is a long way to go, 30 years of neglect on social and affordable housing couldn’t be fixed overnight.
“This serious discussion about how we supply more housing will be cold comfort to people in rental stress,” Zorbas said.
“After decades of underinvestment, and in some cases the defunding of social and affordable housing, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that federal and state governments are now making a real effort.”
“The Property Council supports the HAFF. There should and will always be debate about how the HAFF can be improved and strengthened.
“More of the national property tax haul of $130 billion a year should be diverted into housing.”
“The least cost fix is improving the national definitions of housing,” he added.
“That includes social, affordable and land lease and purpose-built student accommodation.
“With a funding shortfall of close to $300 billion over the next two decades, patient institutional capital is a realistic source of new housing funding and the HAFF is a program that can leverage that.”
