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Sky News AU
02-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Albanese government misses every target of National Housing Accord, falling more than 55,000 homes short in first year
The Albanese government has failed to meet a single target in the first year of its flagship National Housing Accord, falling more than 55,000 homes short of its annual goal. New figures from the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) reveal the worsening housing crisis amid construction delays and exacerbated supply issues due to immigration. The housing policy, which began in July 2024, aimed to deliver 1.2 million new homes by 2029— or 20,000 homes per month—to improve housing availability and affordability. Analysis by the IPA found that just 185,000 homes have been completed since the accord began, leaving the government over 55,000 dwellings behind schedule. The government's target included 55,000 social and affordable homes, of which just 2,600 were completed in 2024. 'The federal government's National Housing Accord is one year old and already tens of thousands of homes behind target,' Director of Research at the IPA Morgan Begg said. 'In its first year of operation, the National Housing Accord as failed to hit a single target. 'At the same time the federal government is bringing in 1.3 million new migrants over three years, Australia is being set up for a disaster.' The latest forecast from the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council projected the government will fall 250,000 homes short of its target by 2029. Meanwhile, bureaucratic red tape has strangled the number of new homes being built as the time taken to build a new dwelling continues to grow. According to findings based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data, it takes 50 per cent longer to build a house in 2025 compared to a decade ago. 'There is unprecedented demand for new homes. Yet it is taking far longer to build them, and it costs significantly more to do so,' Mr Begg said. The IPA also pointed to the contradiction between falling construction rates and rising net migration, with about 1 million migrants set to come in by 2029. The federal budget papers have forecast net overseas migration of 260,000 in 2025-26 and then 225,000 in the subsequent three years. 'There is no plan on how to house new arrivals … This is a manufactured housing disaster,' Mr Begg said. The damning findings follow similar warnings from the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council (NHSAC). In its State of the Housing System 2025 report, the council projected that only 938,000 homes would be built by June 2029—over 250,000 homes short of the federal target. It noted that no state or territory was on track to meet its share of the target, based on population. ABS figures show just 177,000 dwellings were completed in 2024—well below the estimated underlying demand of 223,000. The Albanese government increased total housing commitments to $33 billion in the 2025 federal budget, including the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. Housing Minister Clare O'Neil has defended her approach, arguing 'it takes time to turn the tide on a housing crisis a generation in the making'. The Property Council of Australia (PCA) has since called on governments to redouble efforts to boost housing supply productivity. 'We're projected to be 262,000 homes behind the 2029 target but imagine the gap without these reforms,' PCA Chief Executive Mike Zorbas said in a statement. 'We … desperately need to address falls in productivity that mean we're building fewer than half as many homes per hours worked today than in the mid-1990s. 'We need to move from 170,000 homes a year into the high 200,000s to meet the Accord's target. 'That requires bold leadership to dissolve assessment and approval gridlock in key corridors.'
Perth Now
01-07-2025
- Business
- Perth Now
Insane time it takes to build a house in 2025
Construction time for an average home has increased by a whopping 50 per cent in the past year, with Australia's ambitious 1.2 million homes target already 55,300 homes behind just one year in. While a house took about 8.5 months to build from approval to completion in 2014, it took an average of 12.7 months in 2024, data compiled by the Institute of Public Affairs has revealed. Costs for building materials had also increased by 53 per cent in the same period. Construction times increased across the board in 2021 as a result of supply-chain issues during the Covid pandemic. The lacklustre figures come as Australia marks one year into the five-year National Housing Accords, in which states and territories must build a combined 1.2 million well-located homes by June 30, 2029. The Commonwealth government has also encouraged states and territories with a $3.5bn funding pot as a carrot for reaching the goal. Between 2014 to 2024, the time it takes to build a home has increased by 50 per cent to a national average of 12.7 months. NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard Credit: News Corp Australia Using building activity data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the IPA found Western Australia was leading the construction lag, with an unenviable increase of 85 per cent to 17.8 months. Building costs have also increased by 45 per cent. South Australia had the next slowest builds of 15.8 months, a hike of 74 per cent, with cost going up by 51 per cent. Over 10 years, the cost of materials had increased by 58 per cent in both NSW and Queensland, where it now respectively takes 12.7 months and 10.2 months to build a detached home. It takes 11.3 months to build a home in Victoria, and 12.6 months to complete a home in Tasmania, with material prices increasing by 56 per cent and 55 per cent. IPA research director Morgan Begg said it was 'little wonder' that Australia was in a housing crisis, with the 'unprecedented demand' for housing being exacerbated by increased construction time and costs. 'The federal government's National Housing Accord will mark its first-year anniversary being tens of thousands of homes behind schedule, as red tape strangles new home builds, with construction times ballooning by 50 per cent,' he said. 'Home ownership is fundamental to the Australian way of life. It gives people a stake in our country and provides long-term financial security for families.' Mr Begg said 'all levels of government must do their part to fix this crisis,' highlighting action points like reducing migration, urging state and local governments to open up more land and cut red tape to boost construction. 'Over the past decade Australia has seen demand-driven cost increases to construction material and labour caused by large, inefficient government projects, creating the perfect storm of rising prices and rents, particularly in the post-pandemic period,' he said. 'Across the board, the latest figures reinforce the depth of Australia's housing crisis, brought about by out-of-control migration intakes, a construction sector burdened by red tape, and competition for resources from large, expensive, and inefficient taxpayer-funded projects.' Coalition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg accused Labor of being 'more interested in announcing targets and building bureaucracies than actually erecting any homes'. NewsWire/ Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia Coalition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg said the housing targets were a 'dead duck,' adding that completed dwellings had dropped by 1 per cent over the last 12 months, according to the ABS. 'A year since Labor's Housing Accord 'officially began', building approvals and activity have gone backwards,' he said. 'Labor is more interested in announcing targets and building bureaucracies than actually erecting any homes. 'Labor's actions show they don't support private developers and builders. They think they know better. No wonder the construction industry has consistently led the nation in insolvencies.' Housing Minister Clare O'Neil has flagged reforming building regulations in a second-term Albanese government. NewsWire/ Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia Housing Minister Clare O'Neil has previously said reducing the 'thicket of regulation' around building homes will be a key priority in Labor's next term of government. As of June, the Hotham MP will also oversee planning policy after she inherited it from the the treasurer's portfolio. A spokesman for Ms O'Neil said on Tuesday Labor had been 'very frank' that building homes both costed too much and took too long. He said Labor was focused on 'working closely with all levels of government and builders to try and fix that,' while also 'increasing productivity, encouraging the building sector to look at more modern methods of building and improving planning pathways and removing red tape'. 'The Liberals can run their mouths, but the reality is they haven't put forward a single legitimate proposition that would increase the number of homes being built in Australia – in fact, their solution was to rip billions of dollars from funding for tens of thousands of social and affordable homes,' he said. 'Talk to anyone who knows the residential building sector and they will tell you that structural reform takes time, and building homes takes time, and the Commonwealth is doing that work. In contrast, the Liberal Party didn't touch that work in their last decade in office.'
