Drastic measures needed on housing, not tinkering
The NSW government has just announced that it is releasing three redundant sites on the Central Coast for new housing development.
Of course, it is desirable that the government repurpose any underutilized properties for higher and better uses, but this is just a stop-gap measure - a cosmetic gesture to make it appear that the government is taking action on the problem.
Once these sites are redeveloped, the government has exhausted that avenue for action, and we are back where we started from, no closer to a solution to the housing crisis than we were before.
Hand-wringing over the housing shortage has now become the standard mantra for every political party, but none wants to make a realistic assessment of the situation and recognize what needs to be done, to remedy the failures of the present system.
Every month, the supply of new housing falls further behind the need, but it seems that the government is incapable of original thinking on the issue, parroting the same old proposals that haven't worked in the past and pretending that the current difficulty is some kind of temporary blip that will correct itself, if we are just patient enough.
In the meantime, we are failing miserably to meet our shelter needs, not only in terms of absolute numbers but in terms of the types of shelter that we need for all the diverse households in our population.
For better or worse, we have made a policy decision to rely on the private market to supply every kind of housing that we need in every possible situation, and nobody wants to admit that the private market is simply not fit for purpose in meeting a large proportion of housing demand that doesn't fall into profitable, standard housing-production patterns.
This systemic failure will continue to plague us, if the government isn't willing to step in and manipulate the financial levers that control the market, to make production more responsive to demand and to provide the infrastructure that will make a more encompassing housing output possible.
It's not as though there is no expert analysis or advice available to guide a new direction in the sector.
The problem has been studied for decades in multiple countries, and we know perfectly well what has and hasn't worked (mostly not worked).
What we lack is the political courage to face the issue and introduce the drastic measures that will be needed, rather than tinkering around the edges with "policies" that are designed to sound palatable and not frighten voters but that will, in fact, have no practical effect in the overall picture.
Where is the political candidate in the upcoming election willing to tell it like it is?
Of course, it doesn't help that all political parties seem to be agreed that there is a dire shortage of skilled construction workers while, at the same time, being hell-bent on reducing the number of skilled construction workers that we'll allow into the country.
Politics works in mysterious ways.
SOURCE:
Email, 1 Apr 2025
Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy