Tuesday, December 03, 2024

Australia’s Construction Sector Faces Zombie Apocalypse

As Australia’s housing crisis worsens amid a critical shortage of labour and rising costs, experts are warning that major construction companies are increasingly at risk of becoming “zombie companies”.

New data from KPMG Australia reveals that the number of ASX-listed zombies has spiked by 31 per cent in just six months, climbing from 94 in May to 122 companies.

Gayle Dickerson, KPMG’s head of turnaround and restructuring, said that while there was a strong demand for housing, builders were being squeezed by soaring costs and lack of available labour.

“It means that there are less builders to meet any demand for new housing stock,” she said.

Developers Rule: Affordable Housing Turns Out To Be Unaffordable.

The much-promoted affordable housing centrepiece of the Minns Government’s density push has failed before it starts. A reality check is coming for the NSW Government. Michael Pascoe reports.

It’s a busy time for politicians trying to do something about housing affordability – or at least to be seen to be trying to do something. While Federal Labor is battling the opportunistic Greens-LNP coalition in the Senate over Help-to-Buy and build-to-rent schemes, the actual Coalition is sponsoring yet another Senate inquiry destined to achieve as much as all the other parliamentary housing inquiries – nada.

One of the first actions of the NSW Labor Government upon election 17 months ago was to announce it was scrapping the Greater Cities Commission (GCC), the independent body that attempted to instill some quality in urban planning. The big developers’ lobby, Urban Taskforce, wanted the GCC killed, so killed it was.

Read the full article at michaelwest.com.au

‘137,000 homes could be released’: Boomers told to retire and rent their homes

A bold new housing proposition calls for older Australians to leave the country to help fix a major crisis.

Aussies over 67 are being urged to rent out their homes and retire overseas in a radical housing proposition floated by property sector market researchers.

Suburbtrends says “rentirement” is a viable solution to the nation’s current housing shortage, which would activate over 100,000 rentals.

Rentirement encourages Australians aged 67 to 77 to release their homes into the rental pool, where they can then travel or retire overseas.

Read the full article at www.news.com.au

Government To Tip Billions More Into New Home Builds In Next Week’s Federal Budget

In short:

  • The federal government will tip billions of dollars of additional investment into building new homes in next week’s federal budget.
  • An additional $1 billion will be spent on crisis and transitional accommodation for women and children.
  • The prime minister says the funding commitment is “less talk and more homes”.

The federal government will tip billions of dollars of additional investment into building new homes in next week’s federal budget, as it chases a promise to build 1.2 million new homes by 2030.

An additional $1 billion will be spent on crisis and transitional accommodation for women and children fleeing family violence and for youth through the National Housing Infrastructure Facility.

Read the full article at abc.net.au

Australia’s Housing Crisis Has Become A Fierce Political Battle

Australia’s housing crisis has become a fierce political battle that could have major implications for the next federal election

A fierce battle over housing is set to intensify and define the next federal election as Labor, the Coalition and the Greens target a growing cohort of voters who believe they’ve been locked out of home ownership for life.

The great Australian dream of owning your own home has been fading for a long time — there’s nothing new about this. But the crisis is now baked in — and it has arguably become the big generational disrupter, changing votes and threatening to hurt the government at the next poll.

Read the original article at abc.com.au

We Need A Different Conversation About Australia’s Housing Supply

Talk of increasing the supply of housing to increase housing and rental affordability is only pedalling private financial interest and obfuscating the real problem.

During a recent appearance on the ABC’s Insiders program, the Australian Greens’ housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, cited the figure of more than 1 million vacant homes to argue the Greens’ case for curbing negative gearing and tax concessions for property investors.

Since then, media pundits have picked through the latest (2021) Census numbers in an effort to discredit his argument, all the while letting the “more supply” argument proliferate unchecked. And while the Member for Griffith may be overstating the numbers, he is not wrong in asserting that “we have enough homes for people to live in.”

Read the original article at architectureau.com

Australian Housing Crisis: Full-Time Workers Forced Into Homelessness

In a stark expression of the mounting social crisis confronting the Australian working class, a growing number of people in paid employment are becoming homeless. Workers are increasingly being forced to sleep in their cars, camp in local parks, or couch surf, as a result of the widening chasm between wages and rent prices, and the profound shortage of public and social housing.

Charity organisation Mission Australia reports that four in ten people who sought assistance from a major homelessness charity in the past three years were employed but unable to meet the soaring cost of rent and other basic essentials.

Read the original article at wsws.org

Shock Sum Parents Need To Give Their Kids To Buy First Home

Australian parents will have to shell out increasingly large sums of money to help their children buy homes or risk them never making it onto the property ladder.

In decades past, buying a home was a relatively solitary thing, a goal set and achieved either as a single person or as part of a couple, but now buying a home has increasingly become an affair involving parents and other relatives.

According to investment and advisory group Jarden Australia, 15 per cent of borrowers are receiving an average of $92,000 from parents.

27 Million Milestone Stirs ‘Population Panic’

There are now 27 million Australians, thanks to the fastest population growth in the country’s recent history.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ population clock hit the milestone on January 24 about 3.30pm.

Australia’s population rose by 624,100 people in the 12 months to June 2023 – a 2.3% increase.

This is faster than the 10-year average of 1.4%.

ANU demographer Liz Allen said some segments of the media are exploiting population growth to sow panic about migration.

“Despite all the population panic going on at the moment, demographers have been well aware of this milestone,” she said.

The Future Of Housing In Australia Is Apartments. Lots And Lots Of Apartments

Australia’s big cities have lots of apartments and are getting even more.

Sydney is now just 56% separate homes, according to the most recent data. That is down from 63% in 2001. Most other big capitals are on the same trajectory, as the next chart shows.

Meanwhile, the latest building approvals data shows we plan to build more apartments still.

In Sydney and the ACT a majority of approvals are for dwellings other than separate homes, suggesting that before long Sydney will have separate homes as a minority. Canberra is further from that eventuality but rushing there quickly.

Read the original article at www.criket.com.au