Friday, October 11, 2024

Month: April 2023

Advocates Urge Government to ‘Seriously Consider’ Tiny Homes as Solution to Housing Crisis

Owning a home has always been a dream for Tabatha Wiezczorek, but with the price of housing across much of the country through the roof she’s now looking at something smaller — a tiny home.

Ms Wiezczorek grew up in Newcastle and for a few years she was sleeping rough, unable to afford rent.

“I was homeless, I’d been homeless for about two years,” she said.

“I thought Cessnock was pretty cheap and it wasn’t too far away from Newcastle.”

Ms Wiezczorek decided to relocate to Cessnock, about 50 kilometres west of Newcastle, about 10 years ago.

“When I came out here it was a lot cheaper. It was under $300 a week to rent a three-bedroom house, she said.

“There’s nothing decent here now under $400 a week.”

What Killed the Housing Construction Industry?

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the backlog of residential construction work has blown out to a record $53 billion.

The value of house building work that is yet to be done has risen to $22.8 billion, while the value of apartment construction work in the pipeline has topped $30.7 billion.

Meanwhile, ASIC data shows that nearly 1500 construction companies have shut down since 30 June, putting the year on pace to be the worst in at least ten years.

Earlier this week, the National Housing Finance & Investment Corporation (NHFIC) released its State of the Nation’s Housing report, which forecasts that demand will exceed supply by 124,100 dwellings over the five years to 2028 amid record net overseas migration..