housing our HIA’s report Housing Australia’s Futurefinds that a high level of housing supply is required to meet demand and arrest population Australia’s housing aordability crisis. The past 15 years for Australia’s housing Story: Tim Reardon market have been dominated by a persistent imbalance between the rapid growth in the population and the slow rate at which new housing stock has come online. This imbalance between the slow supply of housing and the ongoing strong demand for this basic human need, has been the underlying cause of rapid acceleration in prices and ultimately Australia’s housing affordability crisis. In more recent years, state governments have been making some progress in response to the crisis by facilitating growth in new housing supply through increasing the availability of land for housing, and by facilitating the construction of higher density dwellings in metropolitan areas. These measures, combined with favourable interest rate settings, culminated in a record number of 233,544 new dwelling commencements in 2016. This level of building exceeds the previous record set in 1994 by 25 per cent. It is also 37 per cent higher than the average annual build so far this century. Critically, for the first time since 2003, the number of homes built in Australia has come close to fulfilling the needs of Australia’s growing population. Against these significant shifts in Australia’s housing environment – which are highlighted by 2016 Census data – HIA has updated its flagship analysis of Australia’s housing demand and supply, Housing Australia’s Future. Specifically, the report considers future economic and demographic scenarios and the corresponding level of housing demand the industry will need to satisfy. From this analysis we conclude that if the population continues to grow at the current rate and economic growth remains modest at around current Tim Reardon: HIA Principal Economist 36 HOUSING MAY 2018 Photo courtesy HELM