Taxation, red tape, migration and housing targets
"Defending pro-investment tax arrangements strongly appeals to property businesses employing 1.5 million people and operating in a world of escalating labour, materials and borrowing costs," Property Council Chief Executive Mike Zorbas said.
Mr Zorbas welcomed the Opposition's comprehensive red tape review proposals and housing infrastructure funding. On migration, he noted Australia's enviable standard of living and inbound investment has been based on strong levels of migration over the past 80 years and that governments will always have to take responsibility for decisions on the skills mix.
"$5 billion for power, water and waste infrastructure is a very strong pro-supply effort that would support building of new communities the moment they are approved," Mr Zorbas said.
"The Opposition has been clear about its important, renewed push for skilled trades migration, which in the construction sector has been stuck below 2 per cent for the past twenty years.
"On the broader migration question, the case has not been made. Housing led migration should always mean a lot more houses not a drop in skilled migration.
"Meantime, we should continue to welcome the skilled trades, care workers and farm hands our nation needs to support the level of service our shrinking workforce, dwindling tax base and ageing population demands.
"We should also carve students out of this debate. They are a small part of the rental pool. They are here for an educational time, not a long time. We can build the quality student living homes they need, on and close to Unis, if we just get the policy settings and ABS definitions of housing right."
Institutional housing measures
Mr Zorbas raised concerns about the scrapping of efforts supporting scaled housing delivery.
"To buy, to sell, land lease, seniors living, student accommodation, build-to-rent, social housing - you name it – this country needs every single home it can get," Mr Zorbas said.
"With the average age of a first home buyer in Sydney at 37 and in Melbourne 36, high-amenity rentals are a key piece of the housing puzzle.
"The Opposition proposes removing the level tax playing field for Build to Rent but that would further hurt the supply of homes that maximise the use of precious land in the middle of our cities.
"Build to Rent housing is half of one percent of housing stock in Australia and yet a wonderful, well located, tenure-secure, service-rich way for many people to live."
Mr Zorbas noted no government had provided enough funding for social housing from consolidated revenue over the past three decades. This has directly led to a wave of inclusionary zoning taxes in our cities which directly drive-up costs for home buyers and renters in new housing projects. In the absence of that, the Housing Australia Future Fund is a better offering than the Opposition's work to date, though we are some years out from an election.
"Ideally social housing would be adequately funded by the $130 billion plus of Federal, State and local government revenue raised by property taxes across the country every year," Mr Zorbas said.
"Governments have failed in their core responsibility to deliver social and affordable housing over the past three decades. The HAFF is imperfect, but it rights this wrong and we would like it continued and expanded.
"Its programs are designed to lift supply, support new projects and close the $290 billion housing gap identified in the 2021 Leptos report commissioned by the previous Coalition government."
National Construction Code
On the National Construction Code, the Property Council said reform must be handled carefully to support both quality and delivery with a 'light touch'. The Code is a nationally agreed framework enforced by states and territories and changes require alignment across states to be effective.
"We must move past the last decade of states' Hokey Pokey on NCC support. Industry needs enduring certainty about nationally agreed minimum standards," Mr Zorbas said.
"Well-designed and consistently applied requirements, including energy efficiency standards, can improve livability and costs for households when they are properly tested and implemented."
