ACT Government on its Affordable Housing

August 25, 2010, Australia - For the past few months the Land Development Agency (LDA) and Own Place had received a lot of enquiries regarding the ACT Government Own Place program, and the ACT Government affordable housing initiative and program has gathered a great impression for its best practice by some of the top industry experts.

The Government’s Own Place Program has been highly praised through its contribution to the Urban Development Institute of Australia’s (UDIA) NSW/ACT Awards for Excellence. With the programs easy to manage system and application processes, many folks has benefited on the said program, able to provide affordable house and land packages in Canberra areas delivered by the Land Development Agency in partnership with a panel of local builder homes. This way, there will be much help for people who had been looking for house and land packages that will suit their basic needs and income.

It was the second time in less than two months that the program has actually receive a recognition, says Chief Minister Jon Stanhope.
“It is great to see industry recognition being given to the ACT Government’s OwnPlace program,” Mr Stanhope said.

“In June, OwnPlace was awarded the Property Council of Australia’s National Innovation and Excellence Award for Government Leadership.”

Own Place is tagged as the benchmark in affordable house and land packages initiative which is a model for all housing agencies to follow and make, according to the UDIA Judges. The consistency of their objectives are the rating on which the OwnPlace program has continuously gathering its praises, thus having the quality of a five star housing products in used for the development of the areas.

Even judging other state agencies to follow the initiative and the benefits that will accrue for their own stakeholders. Land Development Agency chief executive John Robertson welcomed the judges’ comments.

“OwnPlace is the first program of its kind in Australia and we are thrilled to be recognised with another industry award,” Mr Robertson said

Developers Push to Build More Homes

August, 17, 2010, Sydney, Australia - Price for houses for rent continues to increase up more than nine times the rate of inflation due to a shortage of new home construction, according to development lobby group.

The average price for Rent in Sydney increased by 10 dollars a week in the past three months while in the previous year; it rose by 20 dollars a week, according to Real Estate Institute.
In inner-city Sydney suburbs, the regular weekly rent for a two-bedroom home is now $540 per week. It’s $25 higher compared to the price last three months.

A three-bedroom in the same region on average sets renters back $725 a week - up $25 in three months.

According to Aaron Gadiel, Urban Taskforce’s chief executive, the price increase is running at more than nine times the rate of inflation.

Real Estate Institute’s recent figures show that the most costly one-bedroom apartment can be found in Sydney’s inner-east and on the North Shore.

Souce: The Sydney Morning Herald News

Australian Home Loans Slide to a Nine-Year Low

August 11, 2010, Australia - VICTORIA has come out as the only good state in an otherwise depressing national housing market in which home loans have slid to a nine-year low.

Last June, there were fewer than 47, 000 Australians are approved for home loans, the lowest figure recorded since February 2001. This is well down on the 64,000 who borrowed for housing as recently as last September before six interest rate rises and the phase-out of the first home owners' boost.

Since September, Victoria has cast just 16 per cent of home borrowers, compared in New South Wales with 30 percent and 28 per cent nationwide.

As the figures were publicly announced, Treasurer Wayne Swan and his opposition counterpart Joe Hockey were interviewed at the National Press Club if the prices of the houses were too high, too low or about right. Neither acknowledged the question.

According to Mr. Swan, the shortage of houses is due to planning and zoning regulations. He said, ''The truth is, not enough are being built.'' He also added that the government had expended in social housing and was coordination with the Council of Australian Governments to increment the house supply.

According to Mr. Hockey, the government debt is the primary issue why it was hard for home builders to get sufficient funds.

''It is incredibly difficult for them to get finance, and it is incredibly expensive, and one of the reasons is the federal government is in there competing for funds because we are running a deficit and we have got a debt,'' he said.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald News

New Home Sales Slipped

Victoria, Australia - Housing industry has been contemplating on the sudden problems that the country is experiencing. The significant fall of June’s home or housing sales had dropped for the second month since previous months indicating a sudden rose of interest rates, and this had tremendously affected the home industry. After the Housing Industry Association conducted home builders’ activity report, it showed then that the new home sales status in June had slipped by 5.1 percent and had gone down since the sales of the new detached homes had fallen in a whopping 6.6 percent.

In Victoria, there was a massive fall of the detached homes for sale that are sold in the area, and by massive it was about 10 percent in June that it marks down so appallingly. Followed by a 6.4 percent fall in May looking back to the 5.1 percent that was recorded in the national drop.

One of the major problems that are being addressed is the shortage of land in which houses are being developed. This has been acknowledged by the housing industry association as a major discouragement for home seekers to build their new homes.

HIA chief economist Dr Harley Dale says, “Lack of readily available land and hefty infrastructure charges have combined with a chronic lack of development finance to put the brakes on sales and development activity”.

Furthermore, he reiterated that Victoria’s Parliament had recently acted on a legislation in widening the scope for urban land and to execute more development in these areas, however the federal government has been scarce in their funds thus causing an ongoing shortage of new dwellings.

“Concerted action is required to reduce the impact of regulation, development charging, and excessive taxation on the cost of new housing supply. Inaction means that Australia’s dwelling shortage will continue to increase, pushing up existing house prices and disadvantaging households seeking to purchase or rent a dwelling,” Dr Dale said.

Source: Herald Sun News