With the federal government promising to target 1.2 million new houses over a 5-year period, the country is still seeing a shortage of affordable housing.
According to the HIA and Australian Bureau of Statistics, there has been a shortage fall of over 45,000 houses built in the last 12-month period. Although there was a 11% increase from the previous year, we are still well short of the required number of houses especially in especially in urban Queensland cities and towns. With an increasing population from interstate and overseas migration as well as the need for commercial projects and infrastructure spending there is no quick fix to be had.
The new federal tax rules on investment properties, rising interest rates and global uncertainty is not helping with buyers and investors shying away from investing in housing.
While land developers are trying to keep up with the demand, local council and state government red tape and slow rollouts mean that land registration is often delayed and pushed out. This does very little to help builders keep to contract amounts and means that suppliers and trades must increase their costs which flows through to the consumer.
If there are to be any further interest rate increases in the near future, then we may just see investors turn away from the market and people giving up on owning their own home altogether.
