The Albanese Government’s 1.2 million housing pledge is looking more unrealistic by the day.
The latest data on dwelling approvals, loans for the construction or purchase of new dwellings, and new home sales have collapsed, suggesting Australia will build fewer homes in coming years, not more.
This decline in construction will arrive at the same time as Australia’s population is growing at a record pace courtesy of the Albanese Government’s record immigration program:
The upshot is that the nation faces a worsening housing shortage, which will drive rents higher, forcing more Australians into group accommodation or homelessness.
On Monday, News Corp highlighted another fatal flaw with the Albanese Government’s housing plan: the nation is running desperately short of builders:
“Billions of dollars worth of shovel-ready projects across South East Queensland are without a builder, and developers are rapidly losing money on projects desperately needed to house the flood of people moving to the state”.
“Exclusive research by PRD reveals more than 40 per cent of all 196 residential projects worth over $10 million due to start construction in South East Queensland between January 2022 and 2024 do not have an explicit builder or design builder assigned”.
“If we can’t fully rely on projects that already have a builder going ahead, due to labour and material issues, higher construction costs, and delays in delivery timelines; how can we rely on our housing supply actually increasing?”, PRD chief economist Diaswati Mardiasmo said.
“Even if developers can get builders, the costs of building are such that developments aren’t stacking up”, Master Builders Queensland CEO Paul Bidwell said.
How can the Albanese Government’s 1.2 million housing target possibly be met when building companies are failing at an alarming rate, materials and financing costs are sky high, and there is a chronic shortage of builders?
The Albanese Government’s housing target requires 240,000 homes to be built for five consecutive years.
However, Australia has only ever built more than 220,000 homes in a year once in 2017 when it built 223,000. And this was with lower interest rates and materials prices, and a relatively plentiful supply of builders:
Blind Freddy can see that Australia won’t build enough homes to match the projected 2.18 million increase in the nation’s population over five years.
This leaves cutting immigration as the only feasible solution to Australia’s housing shortage.
Net overseas migration must be reduced to a level compatible with the nation’s ability to supply housing and infrastructure, as well as environmental carrying capacity.
Otherwise, the housing crisis will worsen and living standards will collapse.
