The Housing Industry Association (HIA) has welcomed the joint Federal and South Australian government’s commitment of $801.5 million to unlock up to 17,000 new homes for South Australians, including nearly 7,000 for first home buyers.
“This investment includes concessional loans and grant funding to support more homes for first home buyers delivered faster, which is timely given home ownership rates for those under 40 are at decade lows”, HIA Managing Director, Jocelyn Martin said.
“The funding is primarily focussed on key last mile enabling infrastructure including roads, sewerage, water and power to fast-track new dwellings delivery and boost housing supply. This investment is critical to build both more homes faster, as builders often tell us that getting this key ‘last mile’ infrastructure is what holds many projects back from being delivered in a more-timely fashion,” Ms Martin said.
The $801 million funding package includes:
- $300 million in concessional loans to support water infrastructure in the Northern Suburbs of Adelaide aiming to deliver 4,000 homes;
- A $50 million 3-year concessional loan for civil works to deliver 400 new first homebuyer homes within the Playford Alive urban renewal development area;
- A $184 million concessional loan to deliver over 1,700 homes at multiple urban renewal projects across metropolitan Adelaide; and
- $133.6 million in grant funding, which South Australia will match, to deliver 750 dwellings for first home buyers through other programs.
“HIA has been advocating extensively for a boost in enabling infrastructure funding as part of this year’s Federal Budget and ahead of the upcoming South Australian state election to support state and local governments to unlock more new homes faster,” Ms Martin added.
“It is therefore encouraging to see this funding being rolled out to support key housing projects, that will enable more projects to be shovel ready faster and in turn boost housing supply across the country,” concluded Ms Martin.