No time to waste: Labor returns as industry demands immediate housing action
Industry peak bodies have welcomed the re-election of the Australian Labor Party under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, but highlighted the need for an immediate and decisive approach to the ongoing housing crisis.
The 2025 federal election has confirmed a second consecutive term for Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party, with Coalition leader Peter Dutton conceding defeat on election night.
While all major peak bodies have congratulated the re-elected government, they have pointed out the need to work together to develop further housing strategies to give access to home ownership to all Australians.
In his victory speech on 3 May 2025, Australia’s 32nd Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said the re-elected Labor government would “write this next chapter so all Australians are part of our nation’s story”.
Albanese said that the past three years had been tumultuous for many Australians, acknowledging there is still much to do to ease people’s everyday pressure.
“We must do it together. All of us. Because for Australia to realise our full potential, for our nation to be its very best, every Australian must have the opportunity to be their best,” Albanese said.
While the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) congratulated the Labor government on its election victory, CEO Leanne Pilkington noted the party’s policies reflected the need for a bold yet balanced approach that puts housing reform as a top priority.
“This election has underscored the critical importance of stable and practical housing policy,” Pilkington said.
“Labor’s return to office comes with a strong mandate to tackle affordability and increase home ownership across the country,” she added.
Pilkington said Labor’s commitment to enabling buyers to purchase with a 5 per cent housing deposit and $10 billion investment to deliver 100,00 homes for first home buyers was a “vital step toward bridging the generational divide in housing access”.
The CEO further noted that the government’s decision to maintain current negative gearing and capital gains tax arrangements would help ensure investor confidence and stability in the rental market.
“The decision to retain these tax settings is a sign of balanced reforms. This is not the time to introduce destabilising changes to a market already under pressure,” Pilkington said.
Ahead of the National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million homes by 2029, Pilkington stated that successfully achieving this target would depend on the Labor government’s ability to tackle structural challenges.
She said the government should prioritise planning and zoning delays, labour shortages and high building costs hindering housing delivery.
“The challenge now is implementation. The path forward must focus on practical delivery, measurable progress, and transparent outcomes,” Pilkington said.
Managing director of the Housing Industry Association (HIA), Jocelyn Martin, said that limited access to home ownership and rental properties would demand a “major response” in the first days and weeks of the new term of government.
Martin called on the newly elected federal government to make housing a “first-order priority from day one”, reasoning that any “delay or political grandstanding” would only deepen the nation’s housing crisis.
“Too often, we see housing policy used as a platform to showboat rather than solve real problems,” Martin said.
“Australians want practical and meaningful reform. Holding housing legislation hostage to political theatre only pushes the dream of home ownership further out of reach,” she added.
Martin also dismissed the notion that the ability to fix the housing crisis was beyond the remit of the new federal government.
She urged the new government and entire Parliament to “work together to implement the solutions already on the table”.
“The federal government has the influence, the resources and the leadership role to bring all levels of government together. It can drive the coordinated policy, funding and the entire Parliament to work together to implement the solutions already on table,” she explained.
Martin stressed that housing Australians must not become a “casualty of politics” and noted that the country’s housing market requires action within “weeks not years”.
CEO of the Property Council of Australia, Mike Zorbas, said the PCA was looking forward to working together with the re-elected Prime Minister and Labor Party to address continuing housing challenges.
“Better planning our capital and regional cities and providing the homes and industrial and commercial property assets the nation needs is a high priority for the government,” Zorbas said.
“Beyond this, pro-investment settings that attract overseas money to build our future city assets must be a priority for both the federal and state governments over the next term,” he added.
Zorbas highlighted logistical challenges such as environmental approvals and industrial relations in the construction sector, which the federal government could tackle through overall productivity.
“We look forward to early industry consultation on scheme design of the government’s key election commitments to make sure they continue to help industry grow the national pie,” Zorbas said.
President of the Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia (REBAA), Melinda Jennison, called on the re-elected Labor government to enhance consumer protections for property buyers nationwide within the burgeoning buyer’s agent sector.
While Jennison acknowledged that buyer’s agents present a range of opportunities, she said it has also exposed buyers to risks due to the “lack of regulatory oversight” and “rise of inexperienced operators”.
“Concerns are mounting over low entry barriers and inadequate specialist education – issues that have left consumers vulnerable to costly mistakes,” Jennison said
Jennison welcomed the opportunity to discuss these matters with policymakers, noting that this process would ensure that property buyers receive “expert guidance and protection in an increasingly complex environment”.
Knight Frank’s chief economist, Ben Burston, remarked that the federal election did not have much bearing on Australia’s commercial property sector.
He said the housing policies of the re-elected government would help to drive fast growth across the nation’s living sectors.
“The election outcome doesn’t materially change the outlook for commercial property, where the impact of tariffs and the prospect of interest rate cuts are more meaningful.”
“However, it does provide clarity over the direction of housing policy and will be supportive for the fast-growing living sectors,” Burston said.
He also noted that the election result meant the recently passed managed investment trust (MIT) reforms in the build-to-rent sector would remain, helping to reassure major offshore investors of the new government’s support of ongoing investment in the sector.
“For PBSA (purpose built student accommodation), both sides of politics have proposed reducing the number of international students, but the government has foreshadowed a smaller reduction,” he added.
Burston highlighted that the newly re-elected Labor government’s $10 billion investment in new housing for first-time buyers would also bolster activity in the wider residential development sector.
“It means we will see more direct intervention in the supply side via the government’s promise of a $10 billion investment in new housing for first home buyers, and the industry now awaits further guidance as to how this will be implemented,” he concluded.