(Bloomberg) — A major Australian business lobby has put forward a plan to tackle the country’s housing shortage, just months after an election in which concerns about the cost of living, including rising rents, will become a key issue.
Most read from Bloomberg
Business Council of Australia CEO Bran Black said the country needs “urgent action from all levels of government” to solve the national housing shortage. He added that the centre-left government’s Housing Agreement is currently behind by around 64,000 homes per year.
The BCA’s proposals include:
-
A national reform fund to encourage states and territories to boost housing construction
-
Land repurposing for high-density housing
-
Addressing national labor shortages
-
Ending stamp duty
“Governments at all levels have recognized the importance of supply as the real solution to our housing problem,” Black said in a statement Monday. “We support many of the measures already being introduced, but the scale of the task ahead remains immense, and that is why we need all the right reforms if we are to achieve our goals.”
House prices and rental costs in Australia have soared in the post-pandemic period as a burst of migration combined with limited new supply to create a squeeze. The property market has strengthened even as the Reserve Bank has raised interest rates to a 12-year high to combat inflation, further increasing cost pressures on households.
The Business Council of Australia’s program comes just days after the centre-right Liberal-National opposition announced its first policy to boost housing supply, pledging to establish a A$5 billion ($3.4 billion) fund to support investment in infrastructure if she were to win the elections that are expected soon. May 2025.
“I believe very strongly that one of the greatest and most important parts of our culture is the dream of home ownership,” Liberal Party Leader Peter Dutton said at a news conference on Saturday. “That is under two years of labor exhaustion for many Australians.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor government has introduced a range of policies to tackle the national housing shortage, including an investment vehicle to build social and affordable housing and incentives for state governments to expand supply.
However, some elements of the policy platform, including new Build to Rent incentives, remain stalled in the Australian Senate due to a lack of support from the opposition and smaller parties.
Most read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2024 BloombergLP
