State missing homes goal by wide margin: Property Council

The Property Council is waving a red flag in warning after Tasmania fell short of a national building target. Here’s why they are concerned.

Tasmanian Executive Director of the property council, Rebecca Elston at Glebe. Picture: Linda Higginson

Tasmania is building half the homes it needs as the housing crisis worsens, the Property Council says.

The council’s state executive director Rebecca Ellston said the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing a drop in the number of private homes approved in Tasmania was cause for concern.

The state has a federal target to build 26,117 new homes from a national goal of 1.2m by 2029 — but missed the latest quarterly target of 1306 homes by 600 homes.

“Tasmania is the second-worst performer in meeting its housing target, trailed only by the Northern Territory,” Ms Ellston said.

“The pace of construction of new dwellings in the state continues to slow at a time when the federal and state governments — and most importantly the community — expect construction of housing to be accelerated.

“On the back of a reasonable year in 2021-22 when just over 3,500 new dwellings were commenced, 2022-23 saw a fall to 3,059 and the forecast for 2023-24 is that this number has fallen 23 per cent to just 2,347 new dwelling starts.

“Even putting aside the housing that Tasmania needs for the future, we aren’t able to keep up the current demands of the market as we continue to fall well short of what is needed.

“The clock is ticking and we need to see government across all levels come together if we are going to have any chance of reaching the levels of housing that Tasmania needs.

“That includes more efficient council approval processes and government incentives coupled with a reduction of regulatory burden.”

Minister for Housing, Planning and Consumer Affairs Felix Ellis said the government was working hard to get more homes built for more Tasmanians.

Minister Felix Ellis. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“We have worked tirelessly to drive the delivery of key initiatives to unlock the dream of home ownership and put more roofs over the heads of Tasmanians who need them,” he said.

“We have expanded our highly successful MyHome Shared Equity Program, stamped out stamp duty for first home buyers on properties up to $750,000, and we’re on track to deliver on our target of 10,000 social and affordable homes by 2032, hitting the 4,000-home milestone ahead of schedule.

“Our government has listened to the concerns of home builders, and for the first time in Australia’s history, we will be deferring proposed changes to the National Construction Code (NCC), significantly reducing red tape and construction prices for the sector.

“We’ll be bringing our DAPs legislation back to Parliament after further consultation, because ensuring people who meet the planning rules can get a fair go is fundamental to building more homes and growing businesses.”

Labor Minister Shane Broad. Picture: Stephanie Dalton

Shadow Minister for Housing, Planning, Building and Construction Shane Broad said planning reform was key to getting more homes built.

“We need bold, comprehensive reform of Tasmania’s planning scheme and we need it now in 2025,” he said.

“It’s been ten years since the Liberals promised to make planning fairer, faster, cheaper, and simpler with a singular statewide scheme.

“Instead, nothing has happened, except the system becoming more complicated, inefficient, and out of touch with the needs of Tasmanians.”

The state government has held two housing summits since taking office: in March 2018 when there were 3412 applicants on the Housing Register and in July 2022 when there were 4419. The figure is now 4922.

Rental vacancy rates in Hobart were 0.6 per cent at the time of the 2018 summit and 0.5 in 2022. They are currently 0.6 per cent.