Australia has 'zero chance' of meeting government’s plan to build 1.2 million new houses

Macrobusiness Chief Economist Leith Van Onselen has claimed Australia has “zero chance” of meeting the Albanese government’s plan to build 1.2 million new homes by 2029. An industry analysis has found that one new home would have to be built every two minutes to cater for the rapidly growing population and surge in migration intake. “Look the highest number of homes Australia has ever built in a single 12-month period was 223,500 in 2017 and back then we had much lower interest rates, we had much lower materials cost,” Mr Van Onselen said. “Materials hadn’t increased 40 per cent like they have over the pandemic and builders weren’t competing with state governments.”