Property Council Warns Coalition: Don’t Block 80,000 Homes
The Coalition has announced that it will move to disallow regulations supporting the government’s build-to-rent program that passed the Senate in the final parliamentary sitting of the last Parliament.
Build-to-rent housing offers high-quality, secure, long-term rentals in well-located areas and is welcomed across nations with similar economies.
At a time when the median age of a first home buyer is approaching 37 in Sydney, these new rental homes are desperately needed in Australia.
Property Council Chief Executive Mike Zorbas said that after decades of parliamentary neglect, every member of the current Parliament has an obligation to prioritise the supply of new homes to rent and buy.
“This is wrecking ball policy,” Mr Zorbas said.
“The main game, the only game in Australia right now, should be the rapid supply of new housing.
“We need to make owning a home as easy as we can. Equally, people need different housing choices throughout the stages of their lives.
“Our supply gap is huge. We are building homes half as fast as we did in 1995 and are 70,000 homes a year behind our targets.
“Australians expect the Parliament to pull every supply lever we can to make homes less expensive for people who need to buy or rent.
“Threatening to knock out 80,000 new rental homes will directly raise the cost of new homes for everyone in the market.
“We should have moved on from last year’s debate to new policies that reduce last-mile infrastructure bottlenecks, revoke daft state taxes that target new buyers and improve broken planning systems.
“At a time of historic state debt, every private sector dollar must be put to work.
“Patient institutional investment will put downward pressure on the cost of the thirty per cent of housing stock that makes up the rental market.
“Achieving the nation’s welcome 1.2 million new home target depends on all parliamentarians backing policies that boost housing supply,” Mr Zorbas said.
https://www.propertycouncil.com.au/media-releases/property-council-urges-coalition-not-to-block-80000-new-homes-all-over-again