Regional Australia is facing a severe housing crisis as planning systems struggle to keep up with demand, according to industry experts.
HIA Executive Director for Planning & Environment, Mike Hermon, said house approvals are taking longer than ever to get through local councils, exacerbating housing and rental shortages across the country.
“Unfortunately, the housing shortages being experienced in capital cities are even worse across nearly every regional town in Australia,” Mr Hermon said.
He said there were three key factors hampering the delivery of more housing in regional areas: lack of shovel-ready land, insufficient investment in infrastructure for new housing estates, and staff shortages in regional councils to process planning approvals.
The issue is becoming increasingly critical as more Australians move to regional areas.
The latest ABS data shows that 28 per cent of Australians now live outside major capital cities, a figure expected to rise as people are priced out of metro areas.
Despite the Federal, State and Territory Governments signing onto a National Planning Reform Blueprint 12 months ago, Mr Hermon said homeowners and builders are seeing no meaningful change.
“House approval timelines continue to take longer and getting more complex to obtain,” he said.
HIA has compiled a ‘Planning Scorecard’ to assess the performance of each state and territory’s current planning systems and their progress in implementing the National Planning Reform Blueprint measures.
“Disappointingly, in assessing their performance, no state has scored greater than a 3 out of 5 in progressing these key reforms,” Mr Hermon said.
The HIA Scorecard indicates that every planning system across the country is struggling under the weight of housing demands, suggesting that business-as-usual solutions are no longer sufficient.
Mr Hermon called for all tiers of government to step up to address the key issues facing regional Australia.
“We need bold leadership by all tiers of Governments and this needs to not just be focused on major capital cities but address the key issues being faced in regional Australia to enable these regions to grow and flourish,” he said.
