Governments have been warned Australia’s record low housing
affordability rate will translate into major health and welfare
budget blow outs in the future.
The Housing Industry Association and the Commonwealth Bank in
January 2007 estimated that for the first time in 25 years, the
average Australian household could not afford to buy the average
home.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics
Annual Changes in house prices for December quarter 2005 to December
quarter 2006. Annually, house prices rose in Perth (+36.9%),
Darwin (+17.6%), Canberra (+9.2%), Melbourne (+8.1%), Brisbane
(+7.1%), Hobart (+7.1%) and Adelaide (+6.4%), and fell slightly in
Sydney (-0.1%).
Image right: Robert Caulfield, Managing Director of
Archicentre
Mr Robert Caulfield, Managing Director of Archicentre said,
“Housing affordability in Australia is not only an economic disaster
but is a major public health issue with people desperate to get and
keep a roof over their head being placed under enormous mental and
physical strain."
Depression costs the Australian economy $3.3 billion in lost
productivity each year. Six million working days are lost with
another 12 million days of reduced productivity. Economic studies
indicate that each employee with untreated depression and related
conditions will cost their organisation nearly $10,000 a year.
Source: Beyond Blue
Mr Caulfield said, “There is little doubt the lack of housing
affordability in Australia is a player in the area of depression”.
“Many Australian families are facing the shortage of housing and
skyrocketing rents, where in some cases people are having rented
premises auctioned with renters forced to compete with each other
just to rent.”
Mr Caulfield said that against these odds and pressures many
desperate people were signing up to buy properties with no hope of
maintaining payments and sadly losing what savings they had when the
home was repossessed by financial institutions.
“Even worse is where the people have paid inflated prices for the
home and it is sold at a reduced value leaving the original owner
facing debt to cover the gap which can be tens of thousands of
dollars.”
Archicentre is often called in by home buyers who have purchased
a property without a professional inspection before signing the
contract of sale, and are often confronted with unbudgeted costs
when housing faults are found.
Mr Caulfield said that many people who are stretched financially
have no option but to add the repair costs to the mortgage.
“Even worse is the situation where home owners attempt to
undertake structural, plumbing and electrical work which places
their families at risk and devalues their home because of the
illegal building work.”
Archicentre pre-purchase home inspections of some 250,000
Australian homes show one out of every five homes inspected has some
form of illegal building activity.
“Being able to obtain shelter is a key and fundamental
foundation stone to maintaining a stable family relationship in the
Australian way of life,” Mr Caulfield said.
“As a community we should not only be focusing on the economic
cost of housing affordability but also on the health issues that can
be triggered by the housing affordability crisis including the cost
of depression, family breakdowns, alcoholism and stress.”
Mr Caulfield said, ”the current housing crisis in Australia is
also placing enormous pressure on the under funded public housing
sector with record waiting lists.”
The recent Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report on
community housing shows just under 30,000 households were living in
public housing on June 30, 2006, but almost 37,000 people were on
waiting lists.
