The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) will meet with key political and industry leaders in Darwin on June 9 to present Getting Real, REIA’s 2021 Strategic Policy Forum sponsored by realestate.com.au
REIA President, Adrian Kelly said five key policy areas would be addressed including homelessness, affordability and sustainability, along with the supply of Australian real estate.
A total of 42 key policy areas have been identified and refined into five main themes:
- Ensuring supply of Australian real estate
- A home for all Australians
- Real estate for Australia’s cities and regions
- Sustainable real estate, and
- Bringing it all together to ensure successful real estate agencies.
Mr Kelly said housing in Australia has generally become a political football, between the public and private sector, the states versus the feds, the young versus old, the wealthy and the rest, and civil society versus business groups.
“Sadly, too often housing has become a polarising issue and this should not be the case – Australian customers – our clients – deserve rational and fact-based approaches to property policy.
“REIA has long held the view that improving housing supply will address overall affordability and that governments can contribute by refining approval times for development applications, reducing the cost of the development application process, rezoning reform, and land release programs,” Mr Kelly said.
“As our latest Housing Affordability Report showed, we really do need a long-term plan for supply and housing affordability. This is in the best interests of all parties in property transactions, no matter where you sit on the property ladder.
“COVID-19 has showed us it is time to get real about issues affecting Australian real estate.”
Mr Kelly said that in developing Getting Real and focusing on the strategic issues, REIA has undertaken an audit on existing policies, a scan of the ‘big picture’ trends affecting the Australian real estate industry along with a review of aligned Federal Government and associated bodies’ policy measures.
“Other key objectives of Getting Real include the creation of campaign resources for real estate institutes to tailor for their boards, membership and region, and to highlight the role of the Australian real estate industry in helping Australians into their homes and the important role we play in city and regional economies,” Mr Kelly concluded.
