Commentary
Housing supply, planning, tax and feasibility — analysis written by Max and republished from LinkedIn.
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FeasibilityThe Federal Budget’s Housing Paradox: Why taxing established homes will kill new starts.
Restricting negative gearing and CGT discounts to new property is being sold as a supply‐side fix. The idea: push investment into new homes, not existing ones.
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A few weeks ago, Premier Jacinta Allan accused the development industry of cheerleading for the Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division), turning our criticism of failed housing policy (unnecessarily) political.
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But are we getting value for money? The Federal Government is on a roll with state-based infrastructure deal announcements, with $810M for SA in February and another $250M for the ACT last week.
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As reported by the The Australian Financial Review, some $57m of deposits sit in the project solicitors’ trust account, presumably securing $570m of presales, on contracts with 10-year sunset clauses.
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UDIA Victoria is committed to working with new and existing ministers, and all Members of Parliament, to implement policy to boost the supply of new homes in Victoria.
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In light of recent occurrences in the middle east, Wingate has been liaising with quantity surveyors and builders to understand current pricing and market movements on both midrise and high-rise Melbourne based projects.
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This is despite January 2026 dwellingapprovals being at the lowest point since, well, ever – a mere 2,254 for the month (that’s the actual number from Australian Bureau of Statistics).
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The data shows it is falling well short.
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The Victorian Government is spruiking its “new greenfield plans” claiming they will unlock “thousands more homes” and deliver Victoria’s “longest ever pipeline of land”.
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Despite endless policy announcements from Victoria, NSW and the Federal Government, actual delivery keeps falling further behind public headline commitments.