Our planning systems are a drag on productivity. That’s a choice Australians can no longer afford. https://t.co/oseXf323gu #auspol

An absolutely crucial point expressed brilliantly. The most meaningful reforms won't be raised in a business roundtable, because the most meaningful reforms create businesses that don't exist yet.

🚨Issue 03 | Inflection Points | OUT NOW🚨 - Flavio Menezes - Brendan Coates - Matthew Maltman - Travis Jordan

https://t.co/qylvgQkS5U

‘Australia’s economy is in a post-pandemic slump. To dig us out, state and federal governments must tackle the chronic shortage of housing in our biggest cities.’ Read our latest piece in Pearls and Irritations - link below.

https://t.co/3iqBbksLmJ

'Housing in Australia’s cities is now among the least affordable in the world. At the heart of the problem is the fact we just haven’t built enough homes to meet rising demand.' Catch our latest op-ed in The New Daily - link is below.

1/ Housing in Australia's major cities is among the least affordable in the world. A big reason is that we no longer build enough homes, especially where people most want to live.

Australian cities have a lot to love. But our housing shortage is pushing far too many away from the places they want to live, or out of our cities altogether. If we want to build the world's best cities, that has to change. Read the full report below. 13/ https://t.co/qgqDiNdyyS

By helping to ease Australia's housing shortage, these reforms would also push down housing costs, as occurred in Auckland following reforms to their planning rules in 2016. 12/

Our recommended reforms would boost Australians incomes by increasing productivity, create better-functioning labour markets by allowing people to live and work where they want, and reduce car use and hence carbon emissions. 11/

In Sydney we estimate that allowing multi-unit housing and flats up to 3 storeys on land currently zoned for low density would create capacity for more than 1 million 'commercially feasible' homes - homes that are profitable to build given current development costs. 10/

Thankfully, the politics of housing in our cities are changing. NSW and Victoria have introduced major reforms that we analyse in-depth in the report, and which I'll look to explore further in a future post. But clearly, there's still further to go. 9/

States should also review local heritage controls, and improve certainty in planning approval processes by providing deemed-to-comply pathways for mid- to high-density projects, and allowing low-density projects to avoid discretionary planning approval processes altogether. 8/

Australian cities need to build more homes in the places people most want to live. That's why states should introduce reforms to permit 3-storey townhouses or flats on all residential land in capital cities, and at least 6 storeys near to transport hubs and commercial centres. 7/

This is compounded by local heritage controls - such as heritage conservation areas in Sydney or heritage overlays in Melbourne - that apply to 21% of residential land within 10km of the CBD in Sydney and 29% in Melbourne. 6/

And the problem is even more acute in Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide where three quarters or more of residential land within 30km of the CBD is zoned for housing of two storeys or fewer. 5/

A key driver are urban planning controls that only allow higher-density housing on a small share of land in Australia's cities. About 80% of residential land within 30km of the CBD in Sydney, and 87% in Melbourne, is restricted to housing of 3 storeys or fewer. 4/

Unsurprisingly then, Australia's major cities are some of the least dense of their size in the world. If Melbourne was as dense as Los Angeles within the first 15km of the CBD, it would have an extra 430k homes. 3/

At the core of the issue is the lack of housing growth in Australia's major cities. While there's been rapid growth in greenfields suburbs on the urban fringe, and near to the CBD (particularly in Melbourne), growth has been much slower in the middle-ring suburbs in between. 2/