🏘️Unsurprisingly, housing affordability is now a key issue for voters per RedBridge Group Australia polling with 69% rating the government's performance on housing affordability as Poor or Very Poor.
🚅SRL is also much lower priority than fixing housing with 57% stating housing initiatives should be a priority (compared to 14% who say stick with SRL).
SRL may provision future housing supply, but it won't deliver any for 10 years. The housing problem is right here, right now.
🏢Another issue is the unwavering focus on high-density housing which is: ❌Too expensive ❌Too slow ❌Not wanted by (most) buyers
👨👩👧👦Consumer surveys consistently find most (75%+) demand is for a minimum 3 bedrooms. This configuration is too expensive for most buyers in mid or high-rise apartments compared with townhouses or detached homes.
No amount of fiddling will flip this short term. The economics and market don't support it.
⏩Also, streamlined planning has been promised since the 2019 Red Tape Review but remains to be implemented. Councils and public authorities are not held to account on reasonable timeframes or on their critical role to facilitate new housing supply.
We are now seeing the collective result of decisions and non-decisions alike from the last 5+ years. Even if positive changes are implemented now they mostly won’t be felt until around 2030.
So what can the government do immediately to start addressing concerns and deliver more attainable homes at scale, sooner?: ✅Unlock land in established areas which delivers desirable homes at prices more can afford (i.e. not apartments) ✅Call in all zoning and planning approvals for large-scale developments (say 200+ dwellings) for fast-tracking by the State – coordinating authorities on strict timeframes.
✅Reprioritise the Victorian Planning Authority to progress the greenfield PSP program instead of the 10 Activity Centres ✅Unlock more land in regional areas which are otherwise well serviced
The above would cost the state almost nothing and deliver an outsized return in feasible new homes.
💰If the budget allows it, roll back taxes on new home buyers and investors to make buying all kinds of new homes more attractive.
🤔It's not too late to arrest the situation; but it does need rapid decision making and implementation, not more "plans" – BAU won't cut it.