New Housing Slump

New forecasts from the Master Builders Association have further reduced the number of homes the organisation expects to be built in Australia over the next five years.

 It says while the volume of building approvals is moving in the right direction, it expects Australia to fall further behind the Federal Government’s Housing Accord targets.

To meet the Accord target, more than 85,000 approvals are needed per year, between now and 2029.

Master Builders says some states are performing worse than others, with NSW likely to fall more than 100,000 homes below the target.

It says more work needs to be done by policymakers to improve capacity in the supply chain, rather than simply setting arbitrary targets for new home builds.

“This means more investment into the things that go into building these new homes, like available, shovel-ready land, skilled workers, apprentices and reducing red tape to improve productivity.”

Master Builders is predicting the Middle East war will likely push up the costs of construction further and make it more difficult for projects to get underway.

“The more expensive it becomes to build homes, the fewer homes we will likely build,” it says.

“If prolonged fuel shortages cause delays to projects because materials and personnel can’t get to site, then the impacts on the delivery of new homes could be very significant.”