THE Master Builders Association has endorsed a recommendation to create a residential land bank and restructure LandCorp to alleviate housing shortages in Western Australia.
THE Master Builders Association has endorsed a recommendation to create a residential land bank and restructure LandCorp to alleviate housing shortages in Western Australia.
THE Master Builders Association has endorsed a recommendation to create a residential land bank and restructure LandCorp to alleviate housing shortages in Western Australia.
According to Housing Industry Association projections, WA could experience a supply shortfall of 72,500 homes by 2020.
The HIA estimated that over the next ten years, WA will need to build 283,400 dwellings, 83,500 more dwellings than were built in the last ten years.
The majority of the shortages were in metropolitan areas, with Wanneroo and Rockingham tipped to experience the greatest shortfall between supply and demand.
HIA WA executive director John Dastlik said the shortage would worsen without a clear plan from the government.
But in its Economic Audit Committee Report released at the end of last year, the committee mooted the creation of a residential land bank to alleviate shortages.
The committee is a six-member panel of senior economic and public sector management specialists that assesses the performance of the state government.
The pool of available land would be built up from consolidating government land holding and development functions within a single agency, to be known as the Department of Regional Development and Lands.
State-owned land is currently spread across various government agencies, including LandCorp and the Department of Housing.
The report also recommended a reformation of LandCorp’s role in land development, removing it from the responsibility of developing residential land in the metropolitan area.
Master Builders Association WA director of housing and economics Gavan Forster said land shortage was a joint responsibility of government and private developers.
“Its not just blaming the government saying it’s all their fault, the developers have to come to the party as well and bring forth land in a timely manner,” Mr Forster said.
“Of course many of those developers, such as Australand and Stockland, they are public companies and they want to maximise their return to shareholders, so they don’t release the land until they’re guaranteed they can sell it.