Federal Budget missed the boat on property, HIA
The Federal Budget has missed an opportunity to reinvigorate home building activity and help relieve housing affordability difficulties, according to the Housing Industry Association (HIA).
The budget has come as a disappointment to the HIA, said senior economist Andrew Harvey, as it does nothing to address the ongoing weakness in residential building or chronic housing shortage.
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“At a time when new home building is in decline in virtually every state and territory, the Budget has failed to deliver any new measure to reinvigorate the home building sector, despite the sector’s health being absolutely crucial to a healthy domestic economy,” said Mr Harvey.
Measures that were seen of useful by the association included the retaining of existing commitments to the Housing Affordability Fund and NRAS.
The HIA said that what it was hoping to see in addition to this would have been some supply-side reforms, a reduction in excessive taxation on new housing and the extension of existing measures, he said.
Removing stamp duties on new builds was one suggested way, and without these additional measures the Federal Budget is leaving the residential housing sector in the cold.
“Without dedicated housing policy measures and housing supply-side reforms the residential building sector will continue to act as a drag on the macro-economy and the nation’s growing housing shortage will continue to place undue pressure on the household budgets of home buyers and renters,” Mr Harvey said.
