Land Shortage Causing Crisis

A shortage of land is contributing to the ongoing housing crisis throughout Australia. The latest Housing Industry Association (HIA)-CoreLogic Residential Land Report, on 51 housing markets, says the scarcity of land for property development is a “considerable roadblock” to the supply of new homes in the upcoming year. HIA senior economist, Tom Devitt, says the volume of residential land transactions fell 37% in the 12 months to March 2023 and as a result the number of new homes that will be built next year will drop. “An acute shortage of available land saw the price increase by 23% over the three years from March 2020 to March 2023. This compares to just a 5% increase in the three years before that.” Devitt says land sales have dropped throughout urban and rural areas with 36 of the 51 regions examined experiencing a drop in transaction numbers. “Decisions made today about land releases can be expected to affect housing supply ten years from now,” he says.