Seize the Day

Housing affordability has become the burning platform of public policy.

From the Prime Minister down, political leaders have turned their sights on failing housing markets and – hopefully – planning systems. That’s the plus.

We now need to see the conversation around housing affordability converted to concrete plan of action. A mix of ideas are floating out of governments and bureaucracies before the final packages of reform are used to anchor federal and state budgets.

The risk – they occasionally reach for solutions that make it seem as if they are tackling the problem, rather than ones that truly fix the barriers to home ownership.

The Property Council and residential market leaders are working hard to ensure governments focus on an agenda that invokes meaningful change.

This includes boosting supply pipelines, cutting taxes and regulatory costs that add to house prices, bridging the deposit gap, encouraging affordable rental housing and properly mapping markets.

Our prior research around an incentives-based model to fix housing markets and planning systems can seed a new approach that brings sustained collaboration and outcomes.

The solutions are known. Let’s hope our political leaders seize the day.