The current housing stress caused by the unaffordability of housing is unnecessary, according to the authors of the 2010 international Demographia study.

Hugh Pavletich and Wendell Cox say urgent action is required to restore housing to affordable levels. According to the survey, housing that exceeds three times a household’s annual income is deemed “unaffordable”.

While “moderately unaffordable” housing can cost four times household annual income, with “seriously unaffordable” five times that and “severely unaffordable” listed as more expensive still.

Sydney was ranked as the second most expensive housing market in the word — following Vancouver.’

Skyrocketing prices are symptomatic of “fundamental problems” in housing supply, Urban Taskforce CEO, Aaron Gadiel, said.

Gadiel said that NSW is producing less than half the new homes, per capita, than Victoria or Queensland.

“The rate of new home production, per head of population, has halved in the last five years,” he said.

“Rents in outer suburban Sydney have gone up by more than 20 per cent in the last two years.

“In the middle ring suburbs, rents have jumped near to 30 per cent.

As the government prepares to review the Metropolitan Strategy, ambitious targets to meet Sydney’s housing needs must be put in place, Gadiel said.

“This will require tough decisions about the future of our city — but it’s a debate that Sydney has to have.”

Gadiel said that NSW needed to re-open its doors to private investment in urban renewal and expansion.

“We need to see local councils and government making decisions to approve new development,” he said.

“We’ll never get on top of the state’s housing shortage if it doesn’t become easier for developers to build new suburbs on the edge of cities and compact, pedestrian friendly communities in the inner and middle ring suburbs.”

Gemma Battenbough

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