Industry body launches campaign outlining 'distressing' housing situation

The Housing Industry Association (HIA) will commence its Housing Australians campaign tomorrow with the release of a series of radio and print advertisements.

The HIA campaign, which aims to place housing issues squarely on the national agenda, will highlight what it says are distressing facts impacting new housing, from the disproportionate level of taxation on the family home, growing rates of unaffordability, and the current high level of job losses in the sector.

According to the HIA, Australia faces several key issues when it comes to housing:

• This year, Australians will build 25,000 less homes than they did a decade ago.
• Building and construction has contracted every month for the last 34 months.
• More than one million Australian workers in building and construction are worried about their jobs, as new home building continues to fall.
• Severe drops in new housing have forced many manufacturing and small businesses to close with risks of further layoffs.
• Taxes, levies, fees and charges account for 40% of the cost of a new home.
• Australia will need 1.3 million new homes built by 2020. At the current rate of building, more than 150,000 families will miss out on the home they've waited for.

HIA managing director, Shane Goodwin, says access to affordable housing is, at the moment, one of the biggest challenges facing Australia.

"Housing provides shelter - a necessity for all Australians. Building new and affordable homes should be actively encouraged, supported and sustained by governments. Governments can't ignore housing any longer. They need to act more constructively, cooperatively and determinedly to meet the housing needs of Australians and their families."

With 2013 being an election year, Goodwin says it’s essential that all parties embrace policies that will improve housing affordability and cut through the red and green tape that’s ‘strangling’ new housing development.

HIA will be launching policy actions to address these problems in the coming weeks.