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Tony De Domenico
Executive
Director
UDIA
(VIC) |
Housing
Affordability Hit by Upfront Infrastructure
Costs
Melbourne 16
November 2011: The Urban Development
Institute of
Australia
(Victoria) today said too much burden is placed on new home
buyers by state and local government.
Tony De
Domenico, Executive Director of the UDIA (VIC) said,
"A large proportion of the price of a house and land
package, or of a new apartment, is in levies to state and
local government, utilities and authorities".
"This is
putting housing out of the reach of first home buyers, making
it harder to build more homes, and forcing the price of
existing homes and rents up."
"Those
investments that increase the productive capacity of the
economy, including reducing congestion and pollution, and that
stack up over a sufficient long-run cost-benefit analysis
should be built for the benefit of the citizens of today and
tomorrow."
Mr De
Domenico said, "Alternatively, in addition to its current role
in identifying, prioritising and advising government on
infrastructure projects, Infrastructure Australia could be
given responsibility for issuing Infrastructure
Bonds."
"These
could be issued for a local area or for a project, and raise
money to ensure that projects are built in a timely
way."
Mr
De Domenico said the complicated planning process in Victoria
built up over the last decade has seen variation from
council to council on regulations, the use of 173 agreements
to force extra funds from the industry to alleviate
delays in projects, and three layers of environmental
regulations - local, state and federal which often conflicted
or overlapped.
"All
of these issues build costs into every block of land which
ultimately the first home buyer pays."
