Australia’s housing crisis sparks shock turnaround on NIMBY attitudes to development, survey finds

Australians are increasingly shifting away from the “not in my backyard” attitude in favour of building more housing to meet the growing demands of the crisis, which they believe will worsen over the next year according to new research.

Polling Australians on their views on the property market, a new Dye & Durham Pulse survey found Australians were increasingly concerned by housing supply and affordability, which had triggered a change in attitude.

It found NIMBY-ism, which has traditionally stifled development in major cities, was on the decline, with 54 per cent of the 1607 Australians polled over five days in June supporting more housing being built in their local area.

In comparison, 21 per cent oppose such development.

NIMBY-ism is especially on the decline in NSW and Queensland, with 55 per cent of respondents there in support of more development in their state.

Supply is one of the biggest issues underscoring Australia’s housing crisis and remains a focus of the Federal and State governments.

But the Albanese Government’s own National Housing Supply and Affordability Council earlier this year found Labor’s target of building 1.2 million homes in the next five years was set to fall short, with expectations the private market would only supply 903,000 new homes before 2029.

That same State of the Housing System report laid out clearly that Australia would not overcome the existing unmet need — that overwhelmingly impacts the country’s poorest and most vulnerable people the most — unless a concerted effort was made to reach the government’s target.

Dye and Durham Australia Managing Director Dennis Barnhart said their survey had found buyers would outnumber sellers in the next 12 months.

“While one in eight people are likely to sell a property in the next year, almost a fifth believe they are likely to buy, which again underscores the supply and demand issues in Australia’s housing market right now,’’ Mr Barnhart said.

The housing crisis is further compounded by affordability, with renters especially concerned about cost increases.

The survey found more than three-quarters of people surveyed believe rental prices will continue to increase in the next 12 months.

In another alarming finding, almost half of renters have given up on trying to buy a home, despite admitting to having the ambition to do so. Only a third of renters believe they will buy in the future.

The survey also polled Australians on their attitudes to the economy and found people were increasingly gloomy as inflation continued to be stubbornly stickier than previously expected, which had pushed back interest rate cut predictions while heightening cost-of-living concerns.

Almost half of respondents now believe interest rates will rise over the next 12 months, compared with just 33 per cent who believed so in March.

A further 51 per cent of respondents believe inflation will be higher than last year, up from 45 per cent who believed that in March. Retirees and mortgage holders were the most likely to be pessimistic on this front.

The risk of recession, which has been downplayed by the government and the Reserve Bank, is also a live fear for Australians, with the survey finding 61 per cent of people expecting Australia to hit two consecutive quarters of negative growth within a year.

In comparison, less than one in five people believe the country will avoid recession, down from 24 per cent who held the view three months earlier.