New land supply - and not stamp duty relief or superannuation - is the key to boosting housing affordability, especially for first home buyers in Australia, according to the building materials sector.
 
CSR managing director Rob Sindel said the cost of building houses doesn’t increase dramatically year-to-year, but “it is the cost of land that’s gone up”.
 
CSR is one of Australia’s biggest suppliers of building products to home builders.
 
"You can mess around with stamp duty and other things, but it is freeing up land that will satisfy affordability," he was quoted as saying in The Sydney Morning Herald.
 
Sindel added the industry is able to erect more dwellings, but "the natural brake on the system is the planning regime at both council and state level".
 
He also noted that states like Victoria and Western Australia were able to produce more dwelling constructions thanks to more land supply.
 
Housing affordability is one of the top concerns of politicians in Australia, and Treasurer Joe Hockey echoes this sentiment.
 
Hockey said he is amenable to make superannuation more flexible, with the possibility of using super as equity for first home buyers as an option.
 
New South Wales premier Mike Baird vowed to "supercharge" housing supply in the state by doubling the target of government-owned land releases for housing to 20,000 lots over four years.
                                                                                                                                   
Meanwhile, NSW Labor Leader Luke Foley proposed for first home buyers to be allowed to pay stamp duty in instalments over a number of years.

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