Thinking of building in Perth?
Oct 30th 2003, 10:30 pm
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Thinking of building in Perth?
From The West - 31/10/03
THE State's home building boom looks set to continue for at least 18 months - fuelled partly by a $1 billion backlog of homes waiting to be built.
Increasing delays in obtaining building approvals from local councils and a shortage of materials and labour have caused the backlog.
In the past financial year, housing construction valued at more than $3.3 billion was approved but more than a third was not started, the Housing Industry Forecasting Group said in its annual report released yesterday.
The HIFG, a joint initiative between Government and the housing and land development industries, predicted a softening of demand for new homes over the next two years.
Department of Housing and Works senior policy officer Stewart Darby said yesterday there was a lag of about 18 months from the time people bought blocks of land to getting houses built.
To keep up with unprecedented demand many land developers were selling blocks off survey plans before the land was prepared. Home buyers cannot apply for building approval until titles are issued for the land.
New residential design codes and energy efficiency regulations exacerbate delays in obtaining building approvals at the local government level. Local councils have to deal with a big increase in building applications as well as ensuring house plans comply with the new regulations.
Once the building approval is issued, home buyers are facing more delays because of shortages in materials, particularly bricks, and labour.
Many builders are reporting delays of three or more months in obtaining bricks.
The HIFG report said building approvals in WA went up by 7.3 per cent to 21,755 in 2002-2003. Most of those, 83 per cent, were for single detached houses.
That compares with the proportion of multi-residential approvals in New South Wales of 49.7 per cent and Victoria on 30.3 per cent.
The report forecasts building approvals will drop to 19,000 in 2003-2004 and fall the following financial year to between 16,000 and 17,000.
The report said first home buyers were increasingly buying established properties instead of building. Mr Darby said the housing industry had been on a roller-coaster ride for four years.
It had been affected by introduction of the goods and services tax, followed by the collapse of home indemnity insurer HIH.
When it was in severe downturn the Federal Government stepped in with an increase in the first home buyers grant to $14,000 for those building or buying a new home.
Now the industry faced lengthy delays in getting homes built.
The land development sector had responded to the strong demand by creating about 14,000 lots in 2002-2003, including strata lots.
THE State's home building boom looks set to continue for at least 18 months - fuelled partly by a $1 billion backlog of homes waiting to be built.
Increasing delays in obtaining building approvals from local councils and a shortage of materials and labour have caused the backlog.
In the past financial year, housing construction valued at more than $3.3 billion was approved but more than a third was not started, the Housing Industry Forecasting Group said in its annual report released yesterday.
The HIFG, a joint initiative between Government and the housing and land development industries, predicted a softening of demand for new homes over the next two years.
Department of Housing and Works senior policy officer Stewart Darby said yesterday there was a lag of about 18 months from the time people bought blocks of land to getting houses built.
To keep up with unprecedented demand many land developers were selling blocks off survey plans before the land was prepared. Home buyers cannot apply for building approval until titles are issued for the land.
New residential design codes and energy efficiency regulations exacerbate delays in obtaining building approvals at the local government level. Local councils have to deal with a big increase in building applications as well as ensuring house plans comply with the new regulations.
Once the building approval is issued, home buyers are facing more delays because of shortages in materials, particularly bricks, and labour.
Many builders are reporting delays of three or more months in obtaining bricks.
The HIFG report said building approvals in WA went up by 7.3 per cent to 21,755 in 2002-2003. Most of those, 83 per cent, were for single detached houses.
That compares with the proportion of multi-residential approvals in New South Wales of 49.7 per cent and Victoria on 30.3 per cent.
The report forecasts building approvals will drop to 19,000 in 2003-2004 and fall the following financial year to between 16,000 and 17,000.
The report said first home buyers were increasingly buying established properties instead of building. Mr Darby said the housing industry had been on a roller-coaster ride for four years.
It had been affected by introduction of the goods and services tax, followed by the collapse of home indemnity insurer HIH.
When it was in severe downturn the Federal Government stepped in with an increase in the first home buyers grant to $14,000 for those building or buying a new home.
Now the industry faced lengthy delays in getting homes built.
The land development sector had responded to the strong demand by creating about 14,000 lots in 2002-2003, including strata lots.
