Property prices are dropping in towns and suburbs across the country, but high interest rates have meant that housing affordability remains poor even though it has improved just a tad. Although housing affordability is worse now than it was at the same time last year, it did improve in the June quarter by 0.4 per cent.
According to the Housing Industry Association the current issues affecting housing affordability are high interest rates and “… an extremely onerous set of local, state and federal government taxes and charges on new housing continue to slug new home buyers,” said HIA economist Harley Dale.
Mr Dale went on to say that:
“Affordability will only improve if all governments work together to remove the onerous tax burden and regulatory imposts on new residential construction.”
Will government at all levels act to reduce the tax and red tape burden affecting new housing construction, or is it not in their best interest to do anything about it?