South Australia's housing pipeline is under mounting pressure, with new data released today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealing a 10 per cent fall in total dwelling approvals in August.
South Australian Executive Director of the Property Council Bruce Djite said that the results underscore the urgent need for the government to do more to unlock and facilitate housing supply and keep pace with affordability challenges as well as population growth.
"South Australia cannot afford a slowdown in housing delivery," Mr. Djite said.
"These latest figures show the residential pipeline is under real pressure, particularly in higher density projects that can support the scale of housing the state desperately needs."
"To meet demand and keep affordability within reach, both local and state government must accelerate planning reforms, invest in enabling infrastructure and ensure the right tax and investment settings are in place to unlock new supply."
"With the state's relative affordability now a distant memory, we urge the government to pull the many levers at their disposal to support and facilitate development and address affordability through increasing supply".
The Property Council says the new data strengthens the case for reform outlined in its upcoming election platform, including:
– Planning reform, to speed up approvals and deliver certainty for industry
– Enabling infrastructure investment to support new housing and precincts
– Tax settings that encourage new supply rather than constrain it and assist new projects to come out of the ground.
The latest approvals data follows months of industry concern over the rising costs of construction, the taxes, fees and charges associated with developing new housing, as well as planning bottlenecks holding back new projects.
