The test for this Budget was simple: does it increase or decrease Australia's housing supply and construction activity? Yesterday, we got our answer.
The Federal Budget has failed to deliver on its promise to boost housing supply, with Treasury's own estimates showing new restrictions on negative gearing and capital gains tax will cost Australia 35,000 new homes over the next decade.
While some new measures have been welcomed by builders, Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn said that the budget has not delivered on the Federal Government’s commitment to materially increase new housing supply to its full potential.
“The Government’s broken promises on CGT and Negative Gearing dilutes many of the positive features of tonight’s federal budget," said Wawn.
"The opportunity that exists to turbocharge housing supply has been lost.
“Leading into tonight, the National Housing Accord is forecast to be over 200,000 homes short of target and building a new detached house is now 48.6 per cent more expensive than it was right before the pandemic."
Wawn said that there's more progress to be made.
“Workforce shortages remain one of the biggest constraints to delivering homes," said Wawn.
"The Budget doesn’t go far enough to address this.
“There is more work to do to make it easier to deliver the homes, infrastructure and buildings Australians rely on.
"Australia needs to see a material uplift in supply, and we will be undertaking modelling to understand and test the holistic effect of these budget measures.”
