(Bloomberg) — A major Australian business lobby has put forward a plan to address the nation’s housing squeeze, just months out from an election in which cost-of-living concerns including soaring rents are set to be a key issue.
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Business Council of Australia Chief Executive Bran Black said the country needs “urgent action from all levels of government” to fix a national home shortage, adding the center-left government’s Housing Accord was currently running behind by about 64,000 homes a year.
The BCA’s proposals include:
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A national reform fund to incentivise states and territories to boost housing construction
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Land rezoning for high-density housing
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Addressing national labor shortages
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Ending stamp duty
“Governments at all levels have recognized the importance of supply as the real solution to our housing challenge,” Black said in a statement on Monday. “We back many of the measures that are already being rolled out, but the scale of the task before us remains immense, and so we need every good reform on the table if we’re to hit our targets.”
Home prices and rental costs in Australia have soared in the post-pandemic period as a burst of migration together with limited new supply triggered a squeeze. The property market has strengthened even as the Reserve Bank raised interest rates to a 12-year high to combat inflation, further exacerbating cost pressures on households.
The Business Council of Australia’s program comes just days after the center-right Liberal-National opposition announced its first policy to boost housing supply, pledging to create a A$5 billion ($3.4 billion) fund to boost infrastructure investment if it wins the election due by May 2025.
“I believe very strongly that one of the huge and most significant parts of our culture is the dream of home ownership,” Liberal Party Leader Peter Dutton told a press conference on Saturday. “That has been exhausted for many Australians under two years of Labor.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor government has introduced a range of policies to address the national housing shortage, including an investment vehicle to build social and affordable housing and incentives for state governments to expand supply.
However some elements of its policy platform, including new Build to Rent incentives, are stuck in the Australian Senate due to a lack of support from the opposition and minor parties.
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