“The Coalition has today announced a commitment to a $5 billion infrastructure package, to boost more home building across Australia and get homes delivered faster.
Saturday, 19th October 2024
“The Housing Industry Association (HIA) welcomes this important investment that would kickstart and bring forward new housing in greenfield estates and in turn significantly boost current housing supply levels,” HIA Managing Director, Jocelyn Martin said today.
“This $5 billion funding for states and territories would support key ‘last mile’ infrastructure to build the roads, sewers, energy supply and water infrastructure, which is critically needed to get homes shovel ready faster.
“Our members consistently tell us that it is the lack of investment in infrastructure which slows down their ability to bring homes to market faster. We know that efficiently delivered greenfield housing is the quickest way to deliver homes for Australians.
“The further commitment to consider a pause on future National Construction Code (NCC) changes by the Coalition is welcomed given the significant burden of recent NCC and other major reforms being placed on the industry in the past few years.
“These most recent NCC changes added more red tape hampering productivity and are key factor in driving up home building costs for builders and homeowners, and these were introduced at a time when cost of living pressures is locking more Australians out of housing.
“HIA is also aware that the next round of NCC changes is under consideration by Federal and State governments and these will again add more complexity and costs to buildings.
“The residential construction industry and particularly small business are struggling under the weight of red tape, and this is hampering the delivery of new homes. This initiative to place a pause on further rule changes will provide certainty to the industry and let builders get on with the job of building the homes Australians desperately needs.
“HIA is committed to working with both sides of Government’s to continue to identify options to further reduce red tape and bring down costs for consumers as well as maintaining the balance of high quality housing and proportional regulatory settings.”
“Today’s announcement is not the full answer to addressing Australia’s significant housing shortages, but it is an important step forward. It recognises that the Australian dream of home ownership can still remain a reality” concluded Ms Martin.
For more information please contact:
Jocelyn Martin
Managing Director
Simon Croft
Chief Executive - Industry & Policy