'Disappointing': ACT slides down in latest HIA Scorecard

The ACT has been ranked sixth in the latest HIA Scorecard Report for the states and territories, as detached housing approvals drag down figures for the nation’s capital.

HIA chief executive director ACT Greg Weller has labelled the report as “disappointing”.

The ACT was the weakest state or territory in the number of new home commencements for both detached dwellings and multi-unit dwellings, down on the decade average by 40.7 per cent and 74.3 per cent, respectively.

However, while commencements are down on multi-unit dwellings, the number of new approvals are up 54.1 per cent on the decade average. It’s a different story for detached dwelling approvals, which are down 21.5 per cent.

“Home building is an essential part of the economy and it should be doing better than it is,” said Mr Weller.

“Delays in planning and access to land are two of the biggest problems that are slowing the process up.”

Mr Weller said the housing industry has been “concerned” about delays in planning approvals for some time.

“We’re seeing a lot of problems, and there are some structural changes happening that we are aware of in the directorate, but we certainly continue to urge the government to ensure proper resourcing is provided to the directorate so planning approvals can go through,” he said.

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Mr Weller said that at the beginning of the decade, it was the norm to have dwelling approvals in the hundreds every month, but over the past three years, it has heavily declined.

Since 2016, 849 former Mr Fluffy blocks have been released to market.

“The fluffy blocks actually mask a bigger problem because it is a once-off demolition problem that gives a boost to detached house building and inflates figures that are reasonably dismal,” he said.

The Suburban Land Agency has just released 175 single residential blocks in Taylor, and is set to release the first 600 blocks in the new suburb of Whitlam at the beginning of 2019.

While the ACT’s performance was weak in detached housing in the report, it was the strongest performing state or territory in the number of loans to non-first home buyers, up 21.9 per cent on the decade average.

The number of loans to first-home buyers was up by 14 per cent on the decade average.