By Terry Ryder, June 2026

The Federal Budget, if we can believe the Federal Treasurer and the Prime Minister, seeks to address the Australian housing crisis by forcing investors to pivot into buying new-build properties.

But there’s a major flaw in the plan – most investors can’t afford new builds. 

You can buy established homes for $500,000 or less, but you can’t do new builds in that price range.

The median price of a standard house and land package in capital city Australia is $950,000.

And this Federal Budget does nothing to address the very high cost of creating new homes.

The majority of people buying investment properties – most of them aged below 45 and on average incomes – are targeting markets where you can buy in the $400,000s and $500,000s because they can’t afford more expensive properties.

The Federal Budget does not address the biggest single issue in the national housing crisis – how long it takes and how much it costs to create new housing in Australia.

This was laid bare in a report by the Productivity Commission in 2025, which blamed politicians and bureaucrats for the reality that the housing industry is half as productive now than it was in the 1990s. Part of this is a national construction code which has ballooned from 200 pages to over 2,000 pages.

I grew up a family of seven, being one of five kids, in a small dwelling that was originally a Housing Commission house. It was comfortable and provided everything we needed. But it would be illegal today to build that house.

The Opposition housing spokesperson Senator Andrew Bragg is correct when he says the system doesn’t allow Australians to build a cheap house.

Bragg, a Senator from New South Wales, says: “Building a cheap house shouldn’t be illegal.

“I want to make the point that in Australia it’s illegal to build a cheap house if you want to build a cheap house. If think it’s unfair and punitive. I reckon that if you want to build a cheap house you should be able to.

“I’ve been on building sites on the South Coast of NSW where I’ve seen the recesses in the bathroom – required according to the NCC 2022 specifications – which add $30,000 to the cost of a house.”

I agree that those who wish to build an affordable house for themselves and their family should be able to do so, provided it meets basic safety standards.

But the overlays from state governments and local councils – to make housing more aesthetically pleasing, or more environmentally friendly, or more accessible to people with disabilities – continually add to the costs of creating homes.

While the motivation for some of the design changes may be worthy, the incessant additions to the cost of new dwellings have made housing increasingly affordable.

The compliance costs, and the taxes imposed on the home building by all three levels of government, has created a situation where approved projects are not being built, because they’re economically unviable. The cost makes them unaffordable to the market.

Until this changes, we will not solve the Australian housing crisis.