Grand plans to beat back the country’s housing crisis are set to fall flat if NSW can’t find thousands of more skilled tradies.
The NSW government unveiled plans this week to add an extra 30,000 homes on top of its already ambitious target of building 377,000 properties over the next five years as part of the state’s crusade to end the housing crisis.
The new homes will be built on rezoned state land, with 10 per cent earmarked for affordable housing run by community leaders in Bankstown and Homebush and concessions aimed at bolstering the night-time economy in the hopes of attracting younger prospective buyers.
Planning Minister Paul Scully told reporters that these latest attempts to confront the housing crisis would hopefully reverse the exodus of young Aussies from NSW.
“We’re making sure that’s done in conjunction with amenities, with transport, with jobs, because this is about … not only supporting building better homes, but also better communities,” he said.
“These precincts provide more homes for all stages of life, whether people are renting, downsizing, or jumping on the property ladder for the first time.”
In the hopes of kicking construction into high gear, these rezoned builds will also be subject to different planning under the state’s flagship transport-oriented development plans.
But there remains one glaring problem. According to research agency The Insight Centre, the tradies needed to get the job done just don’t exist – yet.
A recent report by the group found that if the state was going to have any hope of hitting its housing goals, it would need to conjure up an extra 150,000 construction workers to meet the rising demand over the next 15 years.
The company’s chief executive Erik Locke warned that, if left unchecked, high redundancy rates, skills shortages and mental health-related absenteeism could derail any momentum the government’s plans might have had.
“Getting better support to these workers to address the financial and wellbeing challenges should be a major priority to keep workers in the sector,” said Mr Locke.
The Master Builders Association seems to agree, with predictions earlier this year claiming Australia’s wider building and construction sector would need half a million extra workers to keep the industry afloat and even more to hit housing targets.
Property Council of Australia NSW executive director Katie Stevenson said that if the state’s latest round of rezoning is going to help put roofs of Australians, locations of more sites needed to be revealed so the industry could arrange capital and labour.
“With cold economic headwinds blowing through the construction sector and impacting project feasibility, we need to make sure we’re working hand in hand to get these new homes built,” she said.
