To fix housing, we must try something radical. Here are three ideas to shift the dial |
To fix housing, we must try something radical. Here are three ideas to shift the dial
June 6, 2026 — 11:30am
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Increasing housing supply has been the government’s focus for four years, to solve an affordability crisis. But no matter how much cash, or rhetoric, is thrown at supply, it’s now apparent that it’s not helping Millennials to enter the housing market.
Supply was doomed from the get-go. The government’s initial target of 1.2 million new homes in five years could never be met. Reasons are manifold: steeply rising construction costs, material shortages, lethargic council approvals and increasingly onerous regulations, as well as critical labour shortages.
Extra workers are hard to find. Tradies can earn more on infrastructure projects, and it’s hard to lure the young off keyboards into arduous work such as bricklaying. TAFE has not kept up with apprenticeships, and immigration has not prioritised the skilled trades needed for housing.
Projects don’t stack up financially; there are increased insolvencies among builders; crackdowns by the NSW Building Commissioner mean fewer builders will take risks. The industry can’t be driven any further or faster.
Consequently, there’s a physical limit to the number of homes that can be built in any year. Supply is not keeping pace with population growth or increasing as fast as the government hoped.
The big slow build: Labor’s 1.2 million-home plan already a year behind........