“The Victorian government’s Housing Statement is almost two years old and while a number of significant planning reforms have been introduced the housing target of 800,000 will not be met as homes need to be built and not just planned,” stated HIA Executive Director Victoria, Keith Ryan.
The Housing Statement was released two years ago by the then Premier, Daniel Andrews. It included an ambitious target of 800,000 new homes in ten years. A new Plan for Victoria has since been announced, and it includes a longer-term target of 2.24 million new homes by 2051.
“HIA’s current forecasts for new home commencements up to 2029 shows that there will be a shortfall of about 110,000 homes after 6 years of the Housing Statement. And if the positive expectations about the number of annual commencements in the second half of this decade, being about 66,000 new homes a year, is maintained for the following 4 years the shortfall will still be around 180,000 new homes.
“It is now clear that the target of 800,000 new homes in ten years will not be met. It may however be possible for the 2051 target to be met if the government learns from the first two years of the Housing Statement.
“The Housing Statement correctly recognised that a shortage in the number of new homes being built is a major cause of the housing affordability crisis. It focused heavily however on planning reforms to increase housing supply. The Statement included little consideration for the critical task of actually building these new homes.
“While the Housing Statement target will not be met the government is implementing some good planning reforms. These reforms have the potential in future years to mitigate the adverse impacts of the planning system on future home building projects. But more work is needed to ensure that these homes are actually built and not just proposed and planned,” concluded Mr Ryan.