With the Federal Election now only weeks away, the Urban Development Institute of Australia is calling on all political parties to detail their policies to ensure that the housing and development industry will be in a strong position to deliver economic growth, new jobs, and affordable housing.

“Almost one in every ten jobs in Australia is in the housing development industry, with the wider related industry contributing about 13.5% of Australian GDP,” said UDIA National President Julie Katz. 

“It’s deeply concerning that neither of the major parties have yet announced a clear plan for such an important sector of the economy.”

In an address at the Economic Society of Australia 2013 Business Luncheon, Reserve Bank Governor, Glenn Stevens, commented that after several years of mining investment led growth, we are now “looking back to household dwelling spending” and that “we will need to build more dwellings than we have been over recent years”. 

However the RBA Governor has cast doubt on the current ability of the construction industry to fill the gap left by the mining industry, conceding in a recent speech that housing investment has “been on the low side”, and whilst there was scope for it to rise, “this is by no means a certainty”.

“If housing is to help fill the economic void left by the fall in the mining boom, major policy reform is required to address constrained land supply, poor planning, inadequate investment in infrastructure, unfair taxes on housing, and red tape,” added Ms Katz.

UDIA has identified four key actions that they believe the incoming Federal Government must undertake as a matter of priority, including:

Delivering modern infrastructure to support our growing population

  • Exploring new ways to finance infrastructure at the local level by leveraging funding with private sector investment, and establishing a National Infrastructure Fund
  • Consolidating local infrastructure-enabling programmes, such as the housing affordability fund and building better Regional Cities
  • Creating a National Land Use Plan by linking Commonwealth funding to the establishment of State based land use plans

Delivering affordable housing now and for future generations

  • Identifying the land needed in our cities based on population forecasts, land use plans, and housing production, and establishing a 15 year plan for the roll-out of land in our cities.
  • Regularly auditing Commonwealth-owned land with a view to making unused Commonwealth land available for housing development
  • Establishing an inter-governmental agreement on local infrastructure charges to ensure that developer costs are benchmarked around the country and made public.

Creating a stronger economy and more jobs through a fairer taxation system

  • Encouraging State and Territory Governments to phase out stamp duty on property purchases over a five year period.
  • Broadening the base of the GST, which will assist States to phase out stamp duties.
  • Including developer levies in GST cost base calculations to improve housing affordability.

Cutting red tape

  • Enhancing opportunities for strategic assessments and bilateral agreements under the EPBC Act to create an integrated environmental approval process and avoid duplication.
  • Directing the Productivity Commission to undertake a national benchmarking project to identify development bottlenecks in state and territory planning systems.
  • Stopping Commonwealth measures to restrict development around airports and airport corridors beyond the current and existing standards.