Housing bill to pass amid migrant surge warnings

The government’s $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund will pass parliament amid warnings net migration levels are exacerbating the housing crisis.

Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten meet the star of the show during a Vision Australia event at Parliament House on Tuesday. Picture: AAP

Net migration over the first seven months of the year is running at nearly 320,000, with the government facing new warnings the population surge is exacerbating the housing crisis ahead of the passage of Labor’s flagship Housing Australia Future Fund.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Tuesday shows an increase in permanent and long-term arrivals of 317,800 between January and the end of July.

According to Westpac, monthly net arrivals in the permanent and long-term category are running 70 per cent above the long-term average. In the permanent and long-term category, monthly inflows tracked at an average monthly gain of 23,000 in the 10 years before the pandemic but are now tracking at 39,300 a month.

AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver said the nation needed to build between 220,000 to 230,000 new homes to meet demand but this year would struggle to build 180,000. “You have a shortfall already of 150,000 – give or take,” he said.

“You then start adding on to that the shortfall from the surge in population and it makes the situation a lot worse.”

The Property Council of Australia’s group executive of national policy and advocacy Matthew Kandelaars said migrants underpinned the nation’s economic success but this influx would present “challenges in addressing our housing deficit – That’s why it’s particularly important we double down across all states and territories in trying to fix broken planning systems.”

Anthony Albanese told parliament on Tuesday the government’s $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund, which is expected to pass the Senate on Wednesday, represented “the single biggest investment in housing in more than a decade”.

“It ensures that more Australians have a safe and affordable place to call home,” the Prime Minister said.

The government was able to break the longstanding Senate deadlock over the HAFF after winning the support of the Greens by putting an extra billion dollars on the table for the National Housing Infrastructure Facility to help provide more homes more quickly for low-income families.

The HAFF will generate returns to fund 30,000 new social and affordable rental homes in its first five years and its passage represents a key legislative victory for Mr Albanese.

Greens leader Adam Bandt on Tuesday said state governments could not ignore the demand for new housing projects, and they had been given a “clear” message from the construction industry to act now. “They’ve got no excuse for not putting their foot on the accelerator and building public and community housing,” he told Sky News on Tuesday.

Housing Minister Julie Collins said the government was “confident we can meet the 30,000 in the first five years of the (HAFF) working with Housing Australia.”

“We already have homes under construction today. We also, of course, understand that this is not the only thing,” she told the ABC. “We also have already given and provided the states with the $2bn Social Housing Accelerator. They are providing plans now. That money needs to be out the door within two years.”

Responding to new ABS data on Tuesday, opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said 433,130 migrants had arrived under Labor and accused the government of providing “no plan for where they will live … Labor’s Big Australia is impacting on Australia’s housing crisis and rental shortage, with rental vacancies at the lowest levels ever.”

Property Council of Australia chief executive Mike Zorbas said the primary challenges to delivering (housing) for up to 500,000 new Australians on an annual basis was “the supply of adequately zoned land and the efficiency of planning regimes to deliver new housing”.

PropTrack director of economic research Cameron Kusher said more supply was the “solution to the housing crisis, so an extra 30,000 homes is a positive outcome.”

Additional reporting: Patrick Commins