The residential building industry is one of the most heavily regulated sectors in the economy. The signs are clear; housing affordability is at its lowest level on record. The cost to build a home in Australia has increased by 150 per cent over 25 years, and industry productivity is at a 30-year low as industry struggle under the weight of building and planning laws.

More housing supply means more Australians have the housing Australians want and need. Today’s new homes are already high performing, use less energy and are more resilient to extreme events. A chronic under-supply of housing leads to fewer high performing homes, higher prices and the potential that a generation are locked out of home ownership.

Transforming the increasingly complex NCC, improving usability and lowering the cost and complexity of proving compliance would have a significant impact on builders’ ability to get housing projects delivered faster and more affordably. The increase in the complexity of regulation has led to the number of participants in the building and approval process increasing, prolonged approval periods, and has added debate and delay to acceptance – all for insufficient or marginal benefit.

Responding to the crisis

Australia’s regulatory landscape needs rapid reform to get more homes built and address the housing crisis. The Productivity Commission research found an excessive and interlocked regulation can slow approvals, raise costs and discourage the investment needed to improve productivity across housing delivery.

The Productivity Roundtable in August 2025 singled out the need to modernise and streamline the National Construction Code (NCC), including the way the provisions are developed, the rate of change and barriers to Modern Methods of Construction (MMC).

HIA has made significant contributions at each step and in response to recent consultation made a substantive submission stating that after years of minor alterations and additions – it is time for knock-down rebuild of the code.

The NCC’s role

The NCC cannot be everything to everyone. Regulation has impacts beyond those it intends, meaning it should be an option of last resort. The principles that guide the development of the NCC reflect these risks by requiring it set minimum acceptable technical requirements only where there is a clearly demonstrated need and no alternative option would be more efficient or effective.

Some changes have fallen short of the above aspiration. The code has grown to encompass other objectives which go well beyond these principles, often based on narrow precautionary predictions of the future and its unrealised risk. The cumulative impacts and the compounding costs to productivity and affordability are not measured. If they were voluntary or alternative approaches may have been preferred.

A new model for standards and innovation

Simplification, innovation and governance reform are key to ensure the right causes are prioritised, and more certainty is given that changes pay off. Guidance and support before adoption mean industry stand the best chance of implementing the changes.

HIA has proposed a new model for code development, including stronger governance, simplification, innovation, usability, enhanced tools and national guidance.

• Strengthen governance, clarify roles and responsibilities, and recommit all governments to a national market. HIA supports enhancing the role of the ABCB under a single Ministerial Council, with appropriate funding and stronger industry representation.
• Simplification should reduce duplication, ambiguity and unnecessary complexity across the NCC, referenced Australian Standards and state and territory variations.
• Innovation reform should create a clear, trusted and nationally consistent pathway to market for new products and construction methods including Modern Methods of Construction (MMC).
• Usability would help practitioners identify obligations through a fully integrated digital NCC that is truly searchable, structured and linked to explanatory material relevant to the project.
• Enhanced tools and national guidance should address known gaps and improve usability.
• Free access to Referenced Standards so builders and small businesses have no barriers to standards they are required to comply with.

What happens next

The Treasury’s interim report released in April details the work undertaken by an Expert Panel to date, which rightly acknowledges the ambiguity, gaps, accumulated regulation and escalating documentation that are undermining productivity and driving up housing costs. A final report is expected before the end of the year.

HIA believe the diagnosis is clear it is long past time for decisive treatment.  Just as every unnecessary requirement has a cost, every unnecessary delay to these reforms has an even bigger price for the housing supply target and hopeful future Australian homeowners.