You can’t have a business without people, and you can’t have people without housing. 

In both Metropolitan and Regional Victoria, our worker shortage and housing shortage are intrinsically linked. 

Communities that are unable to provide a place for their workforces to live are simply unable to prosper. The housing crisis is holding us back in more ways than one. 

  The well-worn expression ‘the great Australian dream’ leaves little room for interpretation. For generations, people have travelled from all corners of the earth to this wide, brown land with the dream of a better life, one which typically includes home ownership.  

But rapid population growth, limited affordable housing stock, glacial planning approval processes, supply chain problems and escalating material and labour costs have created a significant demand-supply gap in the State. For many, this goal is now unattainable. 

It’s clear something must change to enable choice at all levels: ease, scale and speed to boost supply and acceleration of approvals to remove bottlenecks. We need to quite literally think outside the box. 

It’s clear Victoria needs to develop a Housing Plan to prioritise housing solutions for forecast demands and population growth. 

The Australian housing crisis spans local, State and Federal tiers of government and is characterised by a multitude of issues including insufficient planning, skyrocketing house and rent prices, growth in the short-term stay market like Airbnb, and limited adoption of new financing models.   

Although the issue has been consistently in the Herald Sun’s headlines over recent weeks, our housing crisis has been bubbling away for years, and the Victorian Chamber has had a strong focus on it for some time.  

In 2021, the Victorian Chamber led the Victoria Summit which united some of our most eminent thought leaders to help create a vision for a brighter, fairer, and more prosperous Victoria for all. Solving the housing crisis was identified as the primary pathway to making Victoria once again the most liveable place in the world.   

So, over the past 18 months, the Victorian Chamber has prioritised our Housing Taskforce, which has included six online roundtables, 11 regional visits, many one-on-one meetings with engaged stakeholders and dedicated surveys to ascertain gaps in housing supply and demand.  

We have sought the input of developers, Local Government representatives, architects, mum-and-dad investors, academics, tax lawyers, room sharing advocates, and many other industry professionals that work intimately with the housing sector.   

Through the insights we’ve distilled, coupled with our own policy research, we will put forward more than 30 policy recommendations aimed at all tiers of government, financial institutions, developers, and other stakeholders in the housing sector.  The Chamber will release this report in the coming weeks. 

The key themes explored in our extensive consultation with housing specialists encompass planning, Local Government, tax, rentals, supporting infrastructure, innovation, and Regional Victoria.  

We highlight the many issues with the current housing system and demonstrate multiple pathways forward through strategic long-term planning, reforms, streamlining processes and collaboration.     

A constant pain point is the planning system.  

Slow, fragmented planning processes leave planning approval applicants frustrated and, importantly, unable to advance housing projects. Simplifying and streamlining the planning process would increase transparency and therefore accountability of decision-makers.   

A centralised planning system is fundamental. 

Density requirements also need addressing. More medium-density housing like townhouses close to existing infrastructure and services would curb urban sprawl and provide more housing options near business precincts.  

Unlocking institutional investment into built-to-rent housing was another key theme to arise from our housing research. This would provide a pipeline of lower-cost, long-term rentals to ensure that essential workers and low-income families have secure roofs over their heads.  

There must be advancements made in innovation, particularly with the rise in possibility of building houses in factories and deploying the finished product on site. 

A comprehensive housing discussion must address the rising concern of short-term stay accommodation such as Airbnb. Victoria needs to ensure any regulation on Airbnb, including tax and caps, is consistent with the rest of Australia, otherwise people will bypass Victoria for other states.   

The tax and regulatory settings need to recognise landlords, who play a significant role in housing supply. 

And Regional Victoria needs a solution tailored specifically for possibilities that exist. 

The current situation is exacerbating wealth inequality as house prices have quadrupled over the last 50 years while average full-time earnings have only doubled. 

Whether you are wanting to buy or rent, access to good quality, affordable housing is fundamental to wellbeing. And that means choice beyond what is on offer at present. Choice of price point, choice of renting or buying, choice of apartment or housing, choice of Metropolitan or Regional Victoria.  

Now is the time to innovate, to simplify, and to be bold.   

Because there’s no place like home.   

This article originally appeared in the Herald Sun on Tuesday 19 September 2023