Homes could be $100,000 cheaper over a decade if Australia\u2019s capital cities dramatically overhaul their zoning rules to allow three-storey townhouses and apartments to be built on all residential land, according to a new report from the Grattan Institute.<\/p>\n
Calling for an end to the \u201cage of nimby-ism<\/a>\u201d and \u201ca housing policy revolution\u201d, the independent thinktank said Australians were keen to embrace apartment and townhouse living, especially if it meant access to more affordable and well-situated homes.<\/p>\n Brendan Coates, the director of the Grattan Institute\u2019s housing and economic security program, said it was time Australians accepted that our biggest cities must be more densely populated if we hope to deliver the number of homes people, particularly younger generations, need.<\/p>\n Chart titled \u2018Homes have become more unaffordable\u2019, showing the ratio of median dwelling price to median household income in 2001 and 2024 (where the higher the ratio, the more unaffordable the home)<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cFor decades, Australia has failed to build enough homes in the places that people most want to live,\u201d Coates said.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we have a housing affordability crisis that is dividing families and communities and robbing young Australians of their best chance in life.\u201d<\/p>\n As part of a \u201cconcerted policy assault on the housing crisis<\/a>\u201d, Grattan\u2019s report said easing zoning restrictions to allow three-storey townhouses and apartments across all residential land would unlock more than 1m homes in Sydney alone.<\/p>\n The report, co-authored by Coates, Joey Moloney and Matthew Bowes, pointed to \u201ca large body of evidence<\/a>\u201d showing that \u201cwhen planning controls<\/a> are relaxed, the result is more and cheaper housing\u201d \u2013 most notably in Auckland, New Zealand.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n Grattan\u2019s modelling suggested its proposed reforms could lift housing construction across Australia by up to 67,000 homes a year, against 174,300 dwellings built in the year to June, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.<\/p>\n Over a decade, the boost to supply could push rents 12% lower than would otherwise be the case, and slice more than $100,000 off the cost of the median-priced home \u2013 and by much more in the longer term, the report said.<\/p>\n Chart titled \u2018Hard to build\u2019, showing the share of residential land by zone type and distance to Sydney\u2019s CBD<\/a><\/p>\n Leaders in New South Wales<\/a> and Victoria are working hard to get rid of rules that restrict the building of multi-unit dwellings in suburbs within striking distance of the city centre and next to transport hubs.<\/p>\n Still, Grattan calculated that about 80% of residential land within 30km of Sydney\u2019s city centre is restricted to housing of three storeys or fewer, while 87% of all Melbourne\u2019s residential land is restricted to housing of three storeys or fewer.<\/p>\n Three-quarters or more of residential land in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide is zoned for two storeys or fewer, the report said.<\/p>\n As a result, Australia has some of the least densely populated cities in the world.<\/p>\n Chart titled ‘Aussie cities are less dense’, showing the number of people per square kilometre in habitable areas<\/a><\/p>\n If the inner 15km of Sydney<\/a> offered the same number of homes as Toronto \u2013 a city that ranks similarly on quality-of-life measures \u2013 it would mean an extra 250,000 well-located homes.<\/p>\n Similarly, if the inner 15km of Melbourne were as dense as Los Angeles, it would have 431,000 extra homes in striking distance of the CBD.<\/p>\n Michael Fotheringham, the managing director of the Australian Housing<\/a> and Urban Research Institute, said: \u201cAustralia should aim to get off the bottom of the table in urban density\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a clear economic argument we should be improving density,\u201d he said, not least that better located and more affordable homes would support essential workers such as nurses.<\/p>\n Fotheringham pointed to reforms by the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, who recently announced the biggest planning overhaul in a decade targeting \u201cold-fashioned nimby-type laws\u201d.<\/p>\n