NSW is 14,000 homes behind as Labor misses housing accord benchmarks again
Today’s ABS building activity report is the second quarterly report card on the Minns Labor Government and shows that the Government has fallen further behind meeting its housing targets, falling 37 per cent short after six months of the National Housing Accord.
Mark Speakman
Leader of the Opposition
Scott Farlow
Shadow Minister for Planning and Public Spaces
Shadow Minister for Housing
Shadow Minister for Cities
Today’s ABS building activity report is the second quarterly report card on the Minns Labor Government and shows that the Government has fallen further behind meeting its housing targets, falling 37 per cent short after six months of the National Housing Accord.
Only 23,699 homes were completed in NSW in the first six months of the Housing Accord – 14,001 homes short of our six month target of 37,700 homes. This means that NSW now needs to complete 353,301 homes over the next four and a half years to reach the 377,000 new homes target that was set by Chris Minns and Anthony Albanese.
If the average figure across the first six months of the Housing Accord were replicated across every quarter, there would only be 236,990 homes built over the next five years, a shortfall of 140,010 homes from the Minns Labor Government’s housing accord target.
Chris Minns stated in January 2024 that “it's really important NSW is first on the east coast when it comes to completions,” yet NSW is falling behind Victoria, which is meeting its housing accord targets.
Causing further concern, the future pipeline for NSW is looking bleaker, with commencement figures of just 10,653 homes in the December 2024 quarter, a 6.4 per cent decline on the same quarter in 2023. That decline shows that the Minns Labor Government’s policies are failing in driving new home construction – which will lead to NSW seeing fewer new homes completed in the future.
NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said under the leadership of Chris Minns and Labor, higher taxes and charges have led to NSW becoming the worst performing state on mainland Australia.
“The Minns Labor Government has claimed that housing is the centrepiece of its agenda, but six months in, NSW can’t even beat Victoria and it’s clear that Labor won’t get anywhere close to delivering its promises under the National Housing Accord,” Mr Speakman said.
“Amid a mountain of Labor taxes and charges representing up to half the cost of new housing in NSW, declining commencements figures show that worsening feasibility for new housing projects is shattering the dreams of young families wanting to get onto the property ladder,” Mr Speakman said.
Shadow Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, and Housing Scott Farlow said the ABS building activity data shows that Labor has made the housing crisis worse amid a mountain of Labor taxes and charges and that Labor is unwilling to meaningfully address both supply and demand.
“As Labor imposes a $12,000 housing tax on new home builds in Greater Sydney, commencement figures running below completions figures show how the pipeline of new housing is running dry. New home delivery to market will only get worse,” Mr Farlow said.
“Chris Minns and Labor must finally face up to reality: NSW can’t tax our way to more housing.”
“The outlook for new housing is worsening but both state and federal Labor continue to drive higher demand for new housing with net migration increasing Australia’s population by one million people over the last two years.
“More people are being left to compete over fewer new homes, yet Chris Minns is completely unwilling to stand up to Anthony Albanese on rebalancing migration. NSW needs both demand and supply side solutions to the housing crisis.
“Labor has made the housing crisis worse by failing to deliver the homes to cater for our growing population, by making new homes more expensive and construction less viable and by failing to provide the essential infrastructure the sector needs to actually get on with the job of delivering more homes,” Mr Farlow said.
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