30 Apr 2025
As Australians prepare to head to the polls this weekend, housing is front and centre. Both major parties have made it a campaign cornerstone. We’ve seen the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader crisscross the country, standing in front of display homes and promising bold housing policies.
But the housing affordability crisis isn’t a problem that can be fixed in one election cycle. It was decades in the making.
Dwelling prices and advertised rents have more than doubled since the mid-2000s, and price-to-income ratios have followed suit.
Saving for a deposit is further out of reach than ever. Even disciplined high-income earners who started saving a decade ago are no closer to a deposit today than they were then – in some cities, they’ve actually gone backwards.
Housing productivity has fallen by 53% over the last 30 years. We are building 176,000 homes a year – well short of the 240,000 we need to hit the 1.2 million target by 2029.
Our national housing crisis is huge – and it’s compounded by another crisis: climate change.
Australian homes are vulnerable to extreme weather impacts from climate change. A staggering 5.6 million homes, representing close to half of all properties, at risk of bushfire. More than 650,000 homes are already uninsurable because of climate risk.
Climate change is fuelling more frequent and severe heatwaves and cold snaps, pushing up energy use for heating and cooling. Expensive gas and unreliable coal are driving up the cost of electricity.
Lower-income households, already under extreme cost-of-living pressure, spend almost twice as much on energy as wealthier households as a proportion of their income.
Our homes are poorly insulated. Around 70% of Australia’s 11 million homes have a NatHERS energy rating of just 3 stars or less. Lifting those homes to even a 5 star standard could slash the energy needed for heating and cooling by up to 40%.
But some states are still delaying the rollout of the 7-star energy efficiency standard mandated in the 2022 update to the National Construction Code.
I could go on…
What we have is a “wicked problem” – one where every cause is tangled with every consequence, and no simple solution will serve us.
Wicked problems are messy. Everyone has a stake. Everyone has a story. And just about everyone has a theory.
Developers say the housing crisis is a supply issue. Builders point to red tape and labour costs. For planners, it’s the policy settings. For economists, it’s loose lending and low interest rates. Renters blame negative gearing and Airbnb. Homeowners argue its stamp duty. And depending on who you ask online, it’s the fault of immigration.
Everyone is right, and everyone is wrong. Because this isn’t a problem with a cause. It’s a wicked problem with many causes. That means the solution isn’t going to be a policy. It’s going to be many solutions, working together, over time.
Building homes that are both affordable and sustainable has never been more urgent. So, this month we’re taking a closer look at what that really means.
The GBCA has been working collaboratively with our partners across the industry for many years to develop a suite of policy solutions that achieve sustainability and affordability in tandem. How? By developing a clear plan for zero-carbon-ready, resilient, future proof buildings. Aligning planning, regulation and procurement. Unlocking sustainable finance. And ensuring housing policies serve us not just in the next budget cycle, but over the next 50 years.
These principles are foundational to Every Building Count, our shared vision with the Property Council. They’re also central to our recommendations to the next government in our Federal Election Policy Platform, which you can explore in this month’s Green Building Voice.
We’ll continue the conversation at Green Building Day, kicking off in Brisbane on 20 May, with events to follow in Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. We hope you’ll join us. Because wicked problems are only solved by working together.