The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) has said that housing policy must keep pace with skills policy ahead of the Jobs and Skills Summit to be held in Canberra from today 1 September 2022.  

REIA President, Hayden Groves said more workers are needed by Australian sectors across the board and any skills reform will only be successful if housing is given priority by State and Federal Governments.    

“Housing supply has decreased to the lowest on record as all sectors suffer significant and prolonged skills shortages.  

“We need at a minimum another 165,000 more homes by 2030. To deal with that, we need more skilled workers.

“One of the primary outcomes of the Skills Summit should be to bring forward building more homes and better using our existing housing inventory.”    

Key action points should include:  

Existing homes   

• Provide priority incentives (i.e., land tax and rates waivers) for property owners to house key workers in both Australia’s cities and regions   
• Audit all Local, State and Federal Government housing and land to identify vacant homes and land that could be re-introduced into the rental pool for key workers or development sites 
• Phase out stamp duty which could increase housing supply within the existing housing inventory by up to 50%  

New homes  

• Urgently develop a crisis study and supply chain strategy to build more homes  
• States and Territories to implement an urgent land release action plan  
• Look at new innovations that can be rapidly implemented to provide temporary worker accommodation