SYDNEY, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The rising price of residential land is the main factor restricting the construction of new housing in Australia, according to an industry report.
The report from the Housing Industry Association (HIA), the peak body representing Australia's residential construction industry, found that the median lot price for new residential land across the country has increased by 513.6 percent since 2000.
Over the same period, construction costs and the price of skilled labor have increased by around 150 percent, the report said.
It said that the national median price of residential land rose by more than 10 percent over the year to September 2025, tripling the pace of economy-wide inflation.
Tim Reardon, HIA's chief economist, said that the long-running escalation in Australian housing costs has been driven overwhelmingly by land.
He said that government policies mean that the costs of infrastructure, delays and planning are being embedded into land prices and ultimately borne by new home buyers.
"The shortage of shovel-ready land is central to solving the affordability challenge," he said in a media release.
Australia's federal, state and territory governments in 2023 set a target of building 1.2 million new homes nationally over five years from mid-2024.
The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council said in its annual report for 2025 that 177,000 new dwellings were completed across Australia in 2024, falling short of the estimated demand of 223,000 for the same period.
It forecast that 938,000 new dwellings would be built in Australia over the five-year period from mid-2024, with no state or territory expected to meet its share of the national target. ■
