How SA’s housing crisis got so bad – and the action we’re seeing to address it | Pat Gerace

A housing crisis doesn’t happen overnight – but we’re finally seeing real action to address it, writes Pat Gerace. So how did we get here in the first place?

Unlike a natural disaster, a housing crisis doesn’t just happen overnight, but thankfully we are now seeing some concrete action to address it.

A housing crisis can be addressed only by building more houses. This requires more development sites, which all take time. Any potential response leads to a range of opinions being expressed, and switchboards are lit up, with “not too high” or “Adelaide is getting too big”.

It’s easy to see how this scenario leads to inaction, while the families looking for rentals face the danger of living in a car. Or young couples can’t start a family because they still have to live with their parents.

This is why planning for growth has been a key issue for the Urban Development Institute of Australia and why we made recommendations in the lead-up to the state election.

It’s pleasing to see a number of these now being adopted.

Homes in Rivergum, a new affordable, medium-density housing development in Mount Barker.

It’s about good development. We need a balanced mix of large strategic infill sites, new greenfield areas, and appropriate infill development. It should be based on data and not just what can be put on a single allotment, but also on the makeup of the suburbs. This is what we’ve told the expert panel reviewing the planning system. By all counts they have heard this loud and clear.

The announcement of the intention to rezone some big parcels of land is critically important to get our market back in balance. But there are a couple of other welcome announcements no less important that we’ve fought for.

The first relates to things that can be done to avoid getting to a crisis point. We need better ways to see price and supply pressures coming. It is what we refer to as the “development ready pipeline”.

In essence it’s the use of up-to-date and real-time data. Pleasingly the government has announced a new land supply dashboard. It should tell a story of where the critical bottlenecks exist.

So how exactly does a new dashboard of data help the housing crisis? We rely on the private sector, which responds to market demand by reducing or increasing supply. But the housing market can’t just respond like any other market, it is regulated.

An aerial of closely-packed new housing in a Mount Barker development, where thousands of new homes are going up.

Governments are responsible for approving new developments and base decisions on whether they think there’s adequate supply. If they get it wrong the consequences are enormous.

We’ve had a regulatory regime that did not adequately consider the time required for the market to respond. A large-scale development can take 10 years – it’s not like ordering from Amazon.

There is the massive challenge in delivering good-quality and sustainable developments. There are also enormous amounts of co-ordination and planning.

Large-scale developments require multiple agencies. That’s why the creation of an Infrastructure Planning and Development Unit is significant. It is positive recognition by the government they have a critical role to play in co-ordination and delivery of infrastructure that has been sadly lacking.

There is no doubt a constrained housing market makes life tough for so many – particularly for those least well off – but the government needs to be commended for these important first steps.

The development sector now stands ready to play our part.

Pat Gerace 
is Urban Development Institute of Australia (SA) chief executive