The Housing Industry Association (HIA) will convene the State of the Industry Roundtable at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday, against the backdrop of the worst conditions the residential construction industry has faced in decades.

“Residential construction is experiencing its second recession in four years,” said HIA Managing Director, Mr Shane Goodwin today.

“There are 20,000 fewer homes being built per annum than what has been the average for the last 20 years, which represents thousands of employees and contractors that won’t have work and millions of dollars in materials and related services that won’t be purchased.”

“Without the right policy responses from federal, state and territory, and local government to address the on-going contraction in the industry, we will continue to see real consequences for jobs, businesses, the supply of new housing and rental costs.”

The roundtable will be attended by a number of Chief Executives of companies involved in residential construction, from manufacturers to home builders, collectively representing billions of dollars of investment and tens of thousands of jobs said Mr Goodwin.

“The attendance at the Roundtable in Canberra of many of the key players in the residential construction industry shows just how parlous the state of the industry is and how important it is that the right policy responses are put in place,” said Mr Goodwin.

In support of the concerns of the industry at the impact of the current housing downturn, the Roundtable will feature the release of independent research from the Centre for International Economics (CIE) demonstrating the substantial multiplier impact that housing has on the rest of the Australian economy.

“The research demonstrates that for every dollar spent in the residential building industry, there is a significant flow on to the rest of the economy.”

“Significantly, it also highlights that access to housing allows people to participate to their full economic and social potential, which has a value to the economy in its own right,” concluded Mr Goodwin.

HIA

hia.com.au