Coalition will not commit to 1.2 million new home target

The opposition’s housing spokesman won’t commit to a target of 1.2 million new homes by the end of the decade, raising the prospect the deal could be torn up by a ­Coalition government.

Opposition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Opposition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar would not commit to delivering national cabinet’s target to build 1.2 million new homes by the end of the decade if Peter Dutton were to win the election, raising the prospect the deal could be torn up by a ­Coalition government.

Mr Sukkar promised that the Coalition would deliver more homes than Labor if it won next year’s election through its housing infrastructure program and other yet-to-be-announced policies, criticising the Albanese government for falling short of its ambitious target.

After the Greens ended their blockade of Labor’s housing agenda in the Senate on Monday, Mr Sukkar pledged that a Coalition government would repeal shared equity scheme Help to Buy and the Build to Rent program, which incentivise developers to build affordable rentals.

During a debate on housing policy with Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-­Mather at the National Press Club on Tuesday, Mr Sukkar said Labor was on a worsening trajectory to reach the target agreed on by national cabinet last year and was on track to deliver 800,000 homes.

He would not say whether a Coalition government would stick to the national cabinet commitment. “We’ll build more homes in Labor,” he said.

“We built more homes in the last five years of the Coalition government than this Labor government. We built more than a million homes in the last five years of Coalition government.

“As I said in my opening remarks, it’s almost industry consensus now that not only will Labor not meet its 1.2 million homes, they won’t miss it by a smidge … they’ll miss it by more than 400,000 homes.”