This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THOUGH the Victorian government has delivered a Budget full of cuts and delays, the state’s debt will continue to balloon.
The Budget will mark the last year of the shared home equity scheme, before transitioning the federal government’s Help to Buy scheme.
Before calling it a day, the government will invest a final $700 million to extend the Victorian Homebuyer Fund, which will see the fund’s price cap for regional homes increase from $600,000 to $700,000.
“While the $700 million extension for the Victorian Homebuyer Fund will assist some Victorians into a home – it will not result in more homes being built and is in reality only tinkering around the edges of the real problem – a critical lack of new housing supply,” said Cath Evans, Victorian executive director of the Property Council of Australia.
This year’s budget includes $107 million to progress the state’s $5.3 billion Big Housing Build, with this funding to including beefing up the Victorian Building Authority and increasing access to domestic building insurance.
A further $19 million investment has been made into public housing, with the funds to improve response times for repairs and maintenance.
An investment of $20 million will be made towards building roads and unlock government-owned land in East Werribee.
With a further $5 million being invested into local councils across Melbourne’s outer suburbs to improve local infrastructure.
The budget is spending $197 million on homelessness accommodation and support services.
This will include $45 million to expand the Sacred Heart Mission’s Journey to Social Inclusion program to end chronic homelessness, which will generate at least $95 million in financial and economic benefits in the longer-term.
While a further $1.1 million in funding will provide food relief to support tenants in high-rise social housing.
Homelessness in Victoria was up 24% over the last five years, with one in two areas experiencing growth of more than 20%, with the state also recording a 5.3% increase in the use of homelessness services between December and March, according to Homelessness Australia.
The Budget has renewed the state’s focus on the labour shortage, with $394 million to boost investment into vocational training and TAFE.
With $32 million to support workers to quickly retrain or upskill with subsidised training and short courses and $11 million to support apprentices, trainees and their employers to meet Victoria’s workforce priorities.
Over the 12 months to September 2023, Australia saw a 25% plunge on the previous year’s new apprentices getting started in the building and construction industry.
BuildSkills Australia estimates the federal government would need an extra 90,000 tradies in order to deliver the 60,000-plus homes each quarter from July.
This comes amidst a budget of cuts and delays to infrastructure investment, including scrapping the new hospital above Arden Train Station and pushing back the airport rail line for a least four years.
“Efforts by the Government to put the brakes on the State’s massive public infrastructure spend are also welcome, but with the slow down to be drawn out over a number of years, the benefits will take some time to reach the industry,” added Evans.
“There are long term workforce challenges that need to be addressed so that the industry has the capacity to build the homes our State desperately needs. We welcome the Government’s measures in the today’s State Budget to invest in attempting to address the critical labour and skills shortage plaguing the market.”
From 1 July, thousands of businesses will start saving from tax reforms promised in last year’s Budget, with a $266 million property tax cut through the progressive removal of stamp duty on commercial and industrial properties.
