Homes being built quicker for the first time in a decade/RBA Governor slams stamp duty

For the first time in a decade, homes are being built quicker, taking 11 and a half months on average down from almost 12.3. It comes as the government hits pause on tougher building rules, labour shortages ease and pressure mounts on politicians to cut roadblocks holding back new housing supply.

For more, CEO of Master Builders Denita Warn joins.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Finally a glimmer of hope for the housing crisis. For
the first time in a decade, homes are being built quicker,
taking eleven and a half months on average, down from
about twelve and a half. It comes as the government
hits pause on tougher building rules, labor shortages ease, and
pressure mounts on politicians to cut all the roadblocks holding
that new housing supply for more. We are joined by

(00:24):
Denita Warns, CEO of the Master Builders, Live in camera
morning to you, we don't often hear any good news
about the housing crisis. There is hope on the horizon though.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Here that's right now. It's really good news and we
hope this is greenshoots for the housing industry. We understand
that there is that need for homes one point two
million we're trying to build over five years. That means
we need to build nearly two hundred and fifty thousand
homes a year and we haven't been doing that and

(00:54):
so this is great data to show that things are improving.
We've also had the government to the building ministers agree
last week to pause any changes to the building code.
That also gives builders certainty as they go forward to
ensure that we can build for all Australians.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yes, so we're still what fifty or sixty thousand a
year behind. Labor shortages? Are they starting to ease and why?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, they are in some segments of the industry, but
in others they aren't. And in particular, residential building Building
Skills Australia estimates that were about one hundred and fifteen
thousand workers short to complete those one point two million homes.
Eighty odd thousand of those are tradespeople. So we're still short.

(01:39):
It's easing in some parts of the industry, but unfortunately
not in residential.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Okay, let's talk about Michelle Bullock's comments the RBA governor.
She took an aim at stamp duty. She says it's
stopping people moving around, stopping people downsizing it is so
expensive to move in this country. What do you think
about that?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, stamp duty really is a dampener on capacity for
people to move around. We've been saying for decades now
that stamp duty needs to be reduced, if not abolished.
There was attempts during the introduction of the GST to
abolish stamp duty. We implore all governments to really seriously

(02:22):
now once and for all, consider the constraints that stamp
duty has on mobility and for the people to be
able to got downsize and enable families to move into
those larger family homes. It is a significant issue that
needs to be finally addressed once and for all.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
So do you mean abolish stamp duty on bigger houses
so people can downsize or do you mean people entering
the market as well?

Speaker 2 (02:47):
It's everything that we know that stamp duty, whether it's
getting into the market or moving with between your homes
as your lifestyles change, curtails people's buying decision and so
we say that stamp duty needs to be reviewed, it
needs to be preferably downsized or at least if not abolished.

(03:11):
But the question is, well, what do taxes then mean
as an alternative revenue run fundraising for government? So that
is something that governments need to address. As I said,
it was supposed to be addressed when we had GST
but governments didn't go ahead and reduce their stamp duty
as much as was anticipated.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, so the money's got to come from somewhere, but
we will put that to the government. Thank you very
much for your time this morning.