Australia sees current housing shortage of 250,000

A great article for for homeowners looking for investment property advice. According to research provided by ANZ, the Australian housing market currently remains in significant undersupply.

Over the national forecast we have a shortage of around 250,000 home, and while lower then previous estimates this shortfall is assured to remain above 200,000 beyond 2018.

Even with the recent residential and property investment booms, in the markets of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in the greater part of the last three years, home-building levels have only just reached a point suitable for current population growth.

That was largely due to an increased completion rate for apartments in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

“The surge in higher-density housing construction has driven housing construction levels to match annual underlying housing demand for the first time since 1995,” ANZ senior economists David Cannington said.

The last time the Australian housing market was deemed in balance was in 2001. Since then annual residential builds have grossly under marked supply by roughly 18,000 homes, sky rocketing to about 250,000 on the latest estimates. “To erase this shortage would take more than a year of housing construction at current unprecedented levels with no increase in the underlying housing requirement, i.e. no population growth,” Mr Cannington said.

Despite this it is expected easing of construction activity this year, meaning the supply imbalance would only see little change over the coming years, even if population growth slows.

Australia’s homes in need

NSW – 100,000
WA – 44,000
Victoria – 42,000
Queensland – 25,000
SA – 13,000
NT – 6,000