Home Property Australia Chief Executive | The housing debate should be over but it has only just begun

Chief Executive | The housing debate should be over but it has only just begun

  • May 17, 2023
  • by Mike Zorbas
Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic, and Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Jenny McAllister and Property Council Chief Executive Mike Zorbas.

Repetition adds emphasis. As we said across a large number of news outlets last week, it is welcome news that there are 1.5 million people coming to our country to help fill the pandemic-generated national skills deficit over the next five years. 

The Leader of the Opposition’s question about where new arrivals will live is a fair one. Given Australia’s gold medal dawdling on the need for match-fit state planning systems and housing supply over the past 20 years, this debate will get louder, and hopefully smarter, in the next two years.

We will need all the help we can get. So it was particularly pleasing to see the Business Council come out in lock-step with our thought leadership on improving housing, planning and build-to-rent housing on Monday. From a position of considerable insight, they agreed that boosting national supply and planning efficiency is the solution.

Ideally all federal parliamentary parties would now rapidly lean into the heavy lifting on housing supply to prevent our national housing trajectory being a slow-motion train wreck. They should align on positive policy settings for housing choice, build-to-rent housing, purpose-built student accommodation and retirement living communities.

Equally, the Senate needs to pass the Australian Government’s Housing Australia Future Fund and so enable an extra 40,000 social and affordable homes. The Coalition or the Greens could make this happen. 

Beyond all of this, ALP state and territory governments could make an even bigger contribution by improving planning and housing supply across our capital and regional cities, using the muscular West Australian government reform approach as the model.

All federal and state parliamentarians say they want better housing outcomes. Our country needs that to be true for the first time in a very long time.

Energy efficiency retrofits for homes

On Saturday we joined Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic, and Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Jenny McAllister in Western Sydney to discuss the government’s budget commitment to energy efficiency retrofits for Australian homes. This welcome $1.3 billion investment will help tens of thousands of households slash their energy bills and train up a growing skilled workforce to continue this important work over coming decades.

Future Cities Summit

Our tremendous cities conference came roaring back last week, with support from our summit partner nbn. From ways to improve the governance, planning, housing and liveability of our cities to the challenges of transport, resilience and decarbonisation, the summit reminded us Australian cities cannot be allowed to rest on their previous achievements. Change is constant and we must make it positive.

Study tours

Following the successful relaunch of our International Study Tours earlier this year, marked by a memorable trip to Singapore in March, we are pleased to announce two additional tours for FY24. This October our tour will embark on an insight-packed journey through the bustling city of New York, learning about the iconic best of its brilliant buildings and soaking up its vibrant culture. In March 2024, our tour will venture to Japan, a global powerhouse economy co-existing with extraordinary history in some of the densest cities in the world. Keen to join? Send us an enquiry via our website.

Next week, tax in NSW.