The Productivity Commission has released a new report examining the falling productivity in housing construction in Australia over three decades.
Titled “Housing construction productivity: Can we fix it?”, the research looks into how productivity in this sector has fallen far behind the economy at large, rounding out with seven reform proposals to governments to help make homebuilding more efficient again.
The report estimates half as many homes per hour worked are being completed, compared to 1995 and comparatively the labour productivity in the wider economy increased by 49% over the same period.
The proposed reforms to fix this slump included governments setting up coordination bodies to speed up construction processes and address delays, an independent review of building regulations, and a national unified approach to occupational licensing.
“Governments are rightly focused on changing planning rules to boost the supply of new homes, but the speed and cost of new builds also matters. Lifting the productivity of homebuilding will deliver more homes, regardless of what is happening with the workforce, interest rates or costs," said the Commission's Chair, Danielle Wood.
"The sheer volume of regulation has a deadening effect on productivity. If governments are serious about getting more homes built, then they need to think harder about how their decisions unnecessarily restrict housing development and slow down the rate of new home building."
