The housing shortage in Australia is increasing exponentially, doubling over the past year.
We should be creating at least 20% more homes than we are doing today in order to have a reasonable supply.
A recent report by the Federal Government Housing Supply council expects the shortage to be at an all time high of 200,000 by the end of the year.
The greatest shortages are experienced in NSW and Queensland – 60,000 approximately. The shortage in Voctoria is about 22,000.
By 2029 Australia’s shortfall is expected to be 640,000 homes.
As expected, those on low incomes bear the brunt of this shortage, with more than 160,000 households paying more than half their income on housing repayments and 170,000 paying more than half their income on rent.
The report found that construction costs are far higher in the city than in the country. On average a new two-bedroom unit in Melbourne’s existing suburbs costs almost half a million dollars – about $100,000 more than a three-bedroom house on the city’s fringes.
The high costs of units in existing suburbs was a trend repeated across most capitals except Sydney, where a new house on the city’s fringe was a fraction more expensive.
Community opposition to new developments in the suburbs is adding massive delays and costs to the creating of new homes.
Interestingly enough, a large proportion of Australian homes are empty. One in 10 homes are unoccupied and a quarter of these were holiday homes.
Clearly there is a significant gap between the haves and the have-nots, with some people owning several properties and others not even being able to afford the rental of one.