In what proved to be an amazing election result, it is interesting to note that neither of the two major parties made any significant policy initiatives on the housing market before the election itself.
What does the Election Result mean for the Housing Market
We asked John Lindeman, Head of Research at Residex, what the election result means for the housing market.
In what proved to be an amazing election result, it is interesting to note that neither of the two major parties made any significant policy initiatives on the housing market before the election itself.
However, the election result has given us a housing policy by default. This is because the independents who control the balance of power made an agreement with the Labor Party which gives Labor their support in return for a huge expenditure commitment to regional Australia.
The agreement means that the government is fully committed to the National Broadband Network rollout, which will generate demand for jobs in construction and associated demand for housing all over regional Australia, but this is only one of the many regional spending programs that the government has promised to deliver in return for the support of the two independents.
There is regional priority for $1.8 billion in health and hospitals, and $500 in the kitty for the Education Investment Fund to build regional schools. There will be an investment of $1.4 billion on infrastructure, of which $800 million will be given priority for regional areas.
In addition, of the $37 billion already committed to the existing Infrastructure Fund, a full two thirds will be spent in the regional areas of Australia, with another $6 billion promised to regional areas.
What impact will all this expenditure have on regional economies and their housing markets? Over the next few years, you’ll see regional areas come to life with these spending programs. Watch for the rise in employment, lifts in small business, growing local economies and their housing markets from the construction of bridges, roads, town halls, community centres, schools, hospitals, housing, sporting facilities and tourism facilities and watch the housing markets in regional areas boom as a result.
Major regional centres will gain the most and housing markets in towns such as Toowoomba, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Townsville, Cairns, Newcastle, Goulburn, Bathurst, Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo are about to boom.
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October 2010
