THE Rudd Government has released the technical paper for the Housing Affordability Fund.
The $512 million Housing Affordability Fund aims to lower the cost of building new homes by tackling the critical supply side issues of the length of time taken to bring new houses to sale and the impact of infrastructure charges.
The HAF is a part of the Australian Government’s comprehensive approach to tackling housing affordability, which also includes the National Rental Affordability Scheme, National Housing Supply Council, and an audit of surplus Commonwealth land that can be made available for new housing.
Up to $30 million from the HAF is being used to develop IT infrastructure and software to roll out nationally, electronic development assessment systems and online tracking services to reduce red tape and streamline planning approvals.
According to the paper, the expected number of new dwellings, or housing starts, for 2007-08 is just 154,000. This is well below the 170,000 housing starts recorded in both 2002-03 and 2003-04.
The fund aims to make housing more affordable by addressing two significant supply-side barriers to housing development:
- Holding costs incurred by developers as a result of long planning and approval waiting times; and
- Infrastructure costs, such as water, sewerage, transport, and open space.
- Investment will be targeted to areas that with high demand for new housing and can be used for both green-field and in-fill developments.
The fund will be distributed by direct grants, primarily to local governments, local government associations and State or Territory Governments, through a competitive selection process.
Proposals will be assessed against transparent, needs-based selection criteria and will have to demonstrate that cost savings are passed on to new home buyers.
The Government is inviting submissions from State, Territory and local governments, industry and other stakeholders.
Australian Property Journal
