Australia facing immigration-induced housing crisis

From The Herald Sun:

Crisis in home building

John Masanauskas
July 01, 2008 12:00am

AUSTRALIA needs almost one million new homes over the next five years to accommodate the rapidly growing population, says the housing industry.

The Housing Industry Association said mass migration was driving up costs and failing to adequately plug skills shortages.

Victoria needed an extra 5000 houses above current annual production to meet demand, according to HIA data released yesterday.

HIA state executive director Robert Harding said that this translated to about 235,000 new homes over the next five years, with almost one million needed for the whole of Australia.

"Without a substantial increase in production there will almost certainly be a growth in the number of homeless, and further affordability woes," he said.

Mr Harding lashed out at record high immigration, saying federal government policy had to change.

"It's too big in the sense that it's not targeted," he said.

"We are not able to build to meet the demand of the present time, let alone the future demand the migration program is producing.

"We have spoken to the Government about a more targeted skills program, especially in relation to the building trades."

The Rudd Government recently announced an increase of 37,500 places in the 2008-09 program, bringing the total number of migrants and refugees to more than 200,000.

Full article