Is there already a canary in the coal mine for Australia’s 1.2m homes target?
The starting line has only just been passed, but home supply is well below the levels needed to hit Australia’s ambitious 1.2 million homes by 2030 target, according to new data.
The Property Council of Australia (PCA) has flagged the latest data on housing completions from the Australian Bureau of Statistics – showing just 41,329 homes were completed across the country in the first quarter of 2024 – and warning that there could already be “a canary in the coal mine for our housing targets”.
It’s a sharp decrease from the 45,643 completions that occurred over the December 2023 quarter, which seasonally adjusted, represents a fall of 9.5 per cent – the second lowest quarter of completions in a decade.
The PCA has warned that to reach the 1.2 million new homes target by the end of the decade, Australia needs to be averaging 60,000 homes each and every quarter over the next five years.
The latest figures will “cast a dark cloud” over Australia’s chances of completing the target, which officially came into effect this month, said Property Council group executive of national policy and advocacy Matthew Kandelaars.
He raised that the figures “reveal the extent of the challenge and just how much we need to lift our game to hit our targets”.
“If housing supply stays this low, we will only manage to build around 830,000 homes over the next five years, leaving us a whopping 370,000 short.
It led him to warn: “If we don’t start increasing the pace, we will miss what should be an achievable target by a country mile.”
According to Kandelaars, all levels of government across the country must utilise “every possible measure” to assist the industry to deliver on the targets.
“We will only achieve our target of 1.2 million homes by applying increasing amounts of federal funding, state resources and a ‘yes’ mindset to reach that goal,” he offered.
“It’s time to properly address our housing crisis with determination and speed that matches the urgent need to provide more housing for Australians,” he concluded.
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