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Australia's hopes of hitting its housing targets to address skyrocketing rents and property prices appear to be fading before they've even begun, after the number of homes approved for construction declined last month.
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed just 13,078 dwellings were given the green light in April, a 0.3 per cent drop from the month before.
The figure is well short of the 20,000 homes that need to be constructed each month if the country is to hit the federal government's target of building 1.2 million new homes in the space of five years, starting in July.
EXPLAINED: Will Australia get anywhere near hitting its housing targets?
Not all approvals end up being built, either – just this week it emerged that work is yet to begin on almost 40,000 projects that have approval, many of which are in Sydney and Melbourne.
Building peak body Master Builders Australia said approvals need to drastically escalate following today's figures.
"The new National Housing Accord kicks off in less than five weeks' time and envisages 240,000 new homes each year," chief economist Shane Garrett said.
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"However, the past 12 months have seen less than 163,500 new home building approvals across Australia.
"Just 60,600 higher-density dwellings were approved over the year to April. This is the lowest total for any 12-month period since September 2012 almost 12 years ago.
"The challenge is massive, not impossible, but requires a 47 per cent increase in the volume of new home building output."
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The organisation's CEO, Denita Wawn, who previously told 9news.com.au she thought the targets could be hit, said the government needed to address the issues facing the construction industry, otherwise Australians will continue to be hit by surging rents and home prices.
"We have to rapidly increase housing production to reach Housing Accord targets, but some in government have left the handbrake on," she said.
"The hurdles are clear to everyone, approval delays, tradie shortages, material cost inflation, out-of-touch industrial relations changes, inefficient regulation and more.
"We're beginning to sound like a broken record, but the situation is critical. If we don't clear the obstacles stopping builders from getting on with the job, we won't have any hope of reaching the 1.2 million new home target by 2029.
"The community is crying out for more housing supply, but if we don't urgently clear the way for builders to get on with the job, demand will continue to dwarf supply, and Australians will continue to feel the impacts of the housing crisis."
