Friday, August 04, 2006

Land Release Drip Feed Cripples Homebuyers


Land Release
Originally uploaded by Sydney Weasel.
Morris Iemma has failed to fix Sydney’s land supply crisis, with ‘drip feed’ land release at record lows forcing up home prices and creating unnecessary levels of housing unaffordability, said Shadow Minister for Finance Peta Seaton today.

The latest figures reveal land supply in Sydney is down to record low of just 2,780 lots for 2005-06, almost a third of the 1991-95 yearly average, according to UDIA statistics.

In the meantime home affordability gets worse as land supply is squeezed, the cost of buying a home gets higher, and the average Sydney mortgage skyrockets.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Labor’s land release drought is killing homebuyers’ dreams of an affordable home, and forcing families to mortgage themselves to the hilt, paying on average 33% of income to get a roof over their heads in NSW.

Land release has plummeted from highs of around 10,000 per year in 1988/89, while Morris Iemma makes more excuses and does nothing.

While Morris Iemma keeps thousands of hectares of taxpayer owned land ‘in the bank’, the Government is selling the few lots it does release at up to $350,000 per block - before further levies, transport taxes, and the home itself.

‘We need to kick start the housing and construction sector with responsible action to fix the problem – which is why the Liberal/Nationals Coalition has committed to investor incentives and first home buyer grant top up as a priority to stimulate new housing construction. Land release must be speeded up by working better with the private sector, reducing public sector bureaucracy and waste, and stopping the paralysis in the planning system’, she said.

Sydney grows at around 1000 people a week and the Iemma Government has reduced supply of new lots to a trickle, pushing the median home price even higher to a record $516,000.

The cost of rental accommodation is also skyrocketing as investors are driven interstate by Labor’s high land taxes.

‘Record stamp duty and tax revenue has clearly not gone into providing affordable land for families who want space to raise a family in a house with a backyard’, said Ms Seaton.

Labor likes to talk about the need for public transport infrastructure and community facilities – but in eleven years has failed to catch up with existing needs, or provide for new land and housing opportunities.

The Labor Government has already admitted Sydney will run out of housing land by 2011, and is 85,000 homes short of its own targets,

Housing Industry experts such as HIA are slamming the Iemma Government for failing to grasp the seriousness of the NSW housing crisis and have described the NSW situation as ‘dire’.

‘Morris Iemma can take the credit for the end of the family back yard, the end of the traditional Australian family home by steering Sydney’s families into medium density housing across the Sydney basin’ said Ms Seaton.

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