Wednesday 16 October 2024
MEDIA RELEASE
Property Council Chief Executive addresses Senate Inquiry into home ownership – first step is to boost housing supply
Property Council of Australia Chief Executive Mike Zorbas has appeared before a Senate Inquiry today, championing policies that support home ownership and new housing supply.
“Housing targets are our main hope of leaving the federal, state and local government blame shifting of the last few decades behind us,” Mr Zorbas said.
“It is much more likely we will make headway on planning improvements and housing deficits with a national, honest way of reporting on the performance or underperformance to their housing targets of each state and territory and local government over the coming decades.
“Second to supply efforts, we should consider access and barriers to finance.
“We need to ensure that home loans are not just for the wealthy, and that we are giving first homebuyers a realistic chance at accessing credit for housing.
“We need to look holistically at the purchase process. Low saving rates with large deposit requirements, and taxes and charges that amount to a third of the price of new homes all serve as blockers to home ownership,” he said.
Mr Zorbas noted that current housing headwinds operating in most state markets include high cost and hurdles of financing, a decade of high new household formation, catch-up immigration pains, years of rising material and labour inputs, decreasing construction productivity including the need for a construction cop on the beat in perpetuity, low market capacity, labour market competition and cost escalation from historically large state infrastructure builds and green/energy infrastructure construction, planning delays, globally uncompetitive FIRB taxes, sluggish environmental and cultural approvals and ever-changing and disruptive state property taxes, especially those on overseas investors, among other negatives.
ENDS
Media contact: Rhys Prka | 0425 113 273 | [email protected]