AUSTRALIANS still believe in giving people a fair go, a new Essential Research poll found nearly 70% support the Albanese government’s social housing reforms, and at the same time, more than four in 10 believe the current housing system is “broken”.
The poll, taken of 1,165 Australians this month, showed 43% say Australia’s housing system is “broken and needs to be fundamentally rethought”. Another 47% agreed that the housing system is “not working in some parts and needs change in those areas”. Only 9% said the housing system is “largely working well” and requires no change.
It also showed a disconnect between Australians’ views of what the role of housing should be and how they perceive it to be playing out in reality.
Some 73% said housing “should be/is a basic human right that everyone should have access to”, but only 45% believe that is the role housing is currently playing. Less than one in 10 said housing “should be/is a vehicle for growing personal wealth”, while 35% believe that is the role housing is playing.
In the middle was housing “should be/is the foundation for vibrant neighbourhoods and communities”, which was relatively consistent between expectations and reality.
The poll showed 68% say additional support should be provided for not-for-profit community housing providers to deliver social housing. Nearly one-quarter neither supported nor opposed.
The $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund will kick off on 1st July aiming to deliver 30,000 social and affordable homes over five years, with the National Housing Accord Facility to deliver another 10,000 affordable homes. The up-and-running Social Housing Accelerator is targeting 4,000 new social homes.
They will run concurrently with the National Housing Accord, which has the mission of delivering 1.2 million “well-located” homes. However, the targets are considered farfetched by analysts amid a severe labour shortage, current low approval rates and planning red tape.
A majority – 57% – of respondents in the Essential Research poll said they support expanding public sector property development to limit private sector property prices. The Greens last month unveiled a $28 billion plan to create public property developer would build 360,000 homes over the next five years – and 610,000 homes over the decade – and sell and rent them at a big discount, going head-to-head in the market with private developers.
Allowing first home-buyers to access their superannuation to help them purchase their first home was also favoured by a majority (57%), and opposed by 18%. A slim majority favoured removing tax concessions such as negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts for property investors, which was opposed by 19%. Expanding shared equity schemes, where people take a stake in part of their home in partnership with the government or a private investor to reduce upfront purchasing costs was supported by 54%, with one-third indifferent.
Half of all respondents rated state governments’ on their remit of providing social housing and regulating rentals as “quite poor” or “very poor”, and less than one in five believed they were doing a good job. The federal government was rated similarly on setting policies on how homes should be taxed, and local government were looked at slightly more favourably for establishing planning rules for local communities (19% think they are doing a good job, although 41% still rated them as poor).
Property Council of Australia CEO Mike Zorbas used his recent address to the National Press Club to slam “broken state planning systems”, government taxes, and “rank incompetence of previous government and parliaments” in failing to unlock supply and anticipate population growth.
“I can tell you that there are housing ministers, planning ministers around this country who are sitting on development approvals right now that they could release very, very, easily and make a really material difference to supply, but it’s a very difficult and slow process,” he said.
