It says the country is suffering from “historic underinvestment” in housing that's created a significant supply shortage.
In the special housing chapter, Treasury officials have illustrated the problem with more than 20 graphs.They help to explain why the government will spend $1.9 billion to increase Commonwealth Rent Assistance in coming years. It knows how much pressure the private rental market is putting on low income households.The government has pointed out that Australia has fewer dwellings per 1,000 people than the OECD average.
In some parts of Australia, including in some capital cities, the rental vacancy rate has even declined to as low as 0.5 per cent.Australia's housing system hasn't been able to build enough new housing stock to keep up with the needs of its population. That's well above the long-run average of 35.7 per cent and above the 30 per cent threshold for mortgage stress.In early 2002, the median house price was 4.9 times the median gross disposable household income.It's also taking Australians much longer to save for a deposit. In early 2002, it took less than seven years to save a 20 per cent deposit. But now it's taking 11.4 years.