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Action Urged on Home Crisis - Courier Mail 17/03/2010
Australian
17/03/2010
Action urged on homes crisis AUSTRALIA'S housing shortage has become a "chronic" problem, with theundersupply of homes set to total 1.4 million by 2030 if governments fail to act on the issue. The warning came from Matthew Quinn, managing director of Australia's biggest residential developer, Stockland, who said price rises had put home ownership out of reach for the average first-home buyer. "This issue has been brewing for a number of years and "we are now on the precipice of a massive affordability crisis," Mr Quinn told an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch in Sydney yesterday. The supply of houses was short by 60,000 a year and would rise to 800,000 by 2020 if there was no government reform, he said. He called on the three levels of government to act together. "The current metropolitan planning strategies are inadequate ... Time delays in the planning approval process and government levies are untenable." He said the affordability issue would bring an end to McMansions, with houses becoming smaller. "The average first-home buyer today cannot afford to pay the median house price ($485,000)," he said. First-home buyers could on average afford a $330,000 house or apartment based on an average family's income of $71,600, and if interest rates rise one percentage point this year, the buying threshold would fall to $300,000, he said.
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