“Inadequate planning for growth in the demand for land and housing has contributed substantially to the excessive cost and significant undersupply of new homes being felt across all states and territories,” said Mike Hermon, HIA Executive Director Planning & Environment.
“Planning for Australia’s future housing supply relies on accurate and consistent land supply and housing data in both new and established areas. The quality of this information presently varies enormously around the country.
“Good decision making relies on good information. Improving the breadth, quality, timeliness and reliability of housing data will enable all levels of government, and businesses, to make better informed decisions about resource allocation.
“Therefore, it is pleasing to see the leadership in addressing these issues by the SA and NSW Governments in establishing new tools to map land supply and support better decision making.
“The new tools include South Australia’s recently launched land supply dashboard that helps keep developers, councils and agencies up to date on land availability and rezoning activity in South Australia.
“In New South Wales, the launch of Land iQ is being hailed as a world-first platform that harmonises more than 40 datasets to support better land use planning decisions and due diligence.
“These initiatives show what’s possible when governments embrace innovation and collaborate with industry to remove unnecessary delays.
“HIA is calling on the Federal Government to follow suit and fund a national residential land planning council to provide monitoring and reporting of land supply and forecasts at all of the stages of the land supply pipeline.
“Federal leadership is this regard could drive the delivery by state and territory governments of consistent, accurate and timely monitoring of land supply and housing and is key to the delivery of the Housing Accord 1.2 million new homes target.
“We cannot meet Australia’s ambitious housing targets if builders and developers are left waiting weeks or even months for basic planning approvals. Leveraging smart technology to cut red tape and improve efficiency is an essential part of the solution.
“Alongside this, HIA is calling for as part of our Pre-Budget submission and Federal election priorities for national leadership on broader planning reforms including:
- National Planning Ministers to implement widespread planning reforms as set out in the National Planning Reform Blueprint;
- Convene a national planning summit with key industry bodies to drive genuine and long term planning reform;
- Fund the establishment of a new national body to drive comprehensive reform of the planning system, set ‘model’ national standards for planning and land release and collect and report against land data at a national level; and
- Expanding funding of key last mile infrastructure to make homes shovel ready sooner.
“Housing supply is a national issue, but its solutions often lie in local planning systems. Every improvement to speed up approval processes brings us closer to achieving the Housing Accord targets—and delivering more homes for Australians,” concluded Mr Hermon.
This article first appeared in HIA.
