Social housing welcomed
Establishment of a National Housing Accord was one of the most widely supported measures by industry groups and community lobbying organisations following last week’s Federal budget announcements.
In the budget handed down by treasurer Jim Chalmers the Federal Government stated it would provide $350 million over five years to build 10,000 affordable houses with matching funding from states and territories to deliver another 10,000.
However, while getting plenty of ticks of support, the program came with a range of qualifications.
Some of the strongest backing came from the Community Housing Industry Association whose chief executive Wendy Hayhurst described it as “the most important social and affordable housing announcement in more than a decade”.
Regional Australia Institute chief executive officer Liz Ritchie said the Accord, along with the regional first home buyers guarantee would seen one million new homes built over five years.
She expected at least one-third of the investment would be in regions, particularly where there were acute housing shortages.
Lobby group Everybody’s Home described the budget’s housing initiatives as “a landmark step towards tackling Australia’s rental crisis”.
President of the Urban Development Institute of Australia Max Shifman commended the Accord but pointed out it would be impossible to achieve without the cooperation of all levels of government and private development and investment was essential to close the affordability and housing gaps.
Real Estate Institute of Australia president Hayden Groves said while it was great that housing was front and centre in the budget it lacked immediate relief for those battling worsening housing affordability.
He said pressures for homebuyers and renters were unfortunately likely to continue due to constraints to a backlog of new building resulting from supply chain pressures and interest rate increases that have added about $7000 a month to repayments on a $500,000 loan since May.
Not impressed by the government’s housing announcement were the federal Opposition and The Greens.
Greens’ spokesman for housing and homelessness Max Chandler-Mather said the promise of one million new homes over five years was “a total con job and a complete joke”.
He said the private sector had built one million homes over the past five years and would have built that many in the next five years anyway.
Coalition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor said one million new homes over five years starting from 2024 was an aspirational promise and the budget presented no credible plan to help families deal with immediate cost of living pressures.