Apartment & townhouse site starts down 12.3%

Australia is building 15,000 fewer homes than needed each quarter to reach our 1.2 million new homes by 2029 target - with new apartment and townhouse commencements falling by 12.3 per cent in the past 12 months - new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows.

In the June quarter of 2024, 44,853 homes were built across Australia, an increase from 41,072 in the June 2023 quarter.

The June quarter numbers are up 7.3 per cent from the March quarter. However, we are still building well below the levels needed to reach out national housing target.

To reach our ambitious target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029 Australia needs to be averaging 60,000 homes each quarter over the next five years. Today’s data captures the final quarter in the leadup to the Housing Accord, which started on July 1.

Property Council group executive policy and advocacy Matthew Kandelaars said we need to build our way out of the housing crisis, and while it was pleasing to see more homes being completed, we are still not building enough.

“Although it is encouraging to see an increase in the number of completed homes, today’s figures show how far we have to go if we hope to reach our 1.2 million new homes target,” Matthew said.

“This should be achievable, but all the data is currently pointing to failure.

"That new housing commencements are down is a particularly worrying sign and shows how fragile our housing pipeline is.

“These numbers serve as a reminder of the tough road ahead and that we need to do everything, everywhere, all at once to boost housing supply.

“Instead of placing our housing targets in the "too hard" basket, we need to go all in to increase our run-rate.

“We need governments at all levels working in partnership to deliver the homes Australians need.

“This means boosting housing-enabling last-mile infrastructure, speeding up approvals and addressing apartment-killing state taxes.

“And it means parties need to put aside political point scoring for the good of the nation and pass legislation before the parliament that will boost housing supply.

“Let’s stop putting up roadblocks to more homes and get on with helping the industry build them."

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