If the mission of the Housing Options Paper (HOP) is aimed at ‘affordable housing’, cheaper housing and increasing home ownership, I have little faith in its success.
The NSW state government’s target is 4,522 dwellings. Council is aiming for 6,695 across the Byron Shire with Mullumbimby and Brunswick Heads taking up 54.5 per cent of that growth. At 2.2 persons per dwelling, that represents an increase in population of 8,027 persons in these settlements.
Investors are well aware of the relatively high land cost component involved in developments in this Shire. This is confirmed by comparing data from the Valuer General land values from 1 July 2019 to 1 July 2022. Total land value in Byron Shire rose from $11,892,037,080 in 2019 to $23,175,570,959 in 2022 representing an increase of 95 per cent. Residential land rose in value from $7,147,317,810 to $13,565,649,310 representing an increase of 90 per cent.
How is this related to the HOP? As Hans Lovejoy said (Editorial, 18 October) ‘Affordable housing is a myth’. I would add, so is ‘cheaper housing’ in this Shire.
The HOP has no context other than a demand management approach to increasing supply. It sidesteps any acknowledgement that finance is the driver behind a decline in home ownership making it harder and harder not only to get into the housing market but to stay in it.
We have, compared to countries across the globe, an extremely high debt to household income [ratio] as the value of dwellings increase relative to income. This has come about by deliberate design and not accident given the deregulation of the finance industry. And the banks continue to be the most profitable in the world.
There are also problems emerging in the rental market which will probably see investors leave like lemmings unless rents increase to absorb increasing costs. These can be summed up as increases in mortgage indebtedness, costly changes in legislation aimed at rental accommodation, and a lack of capital gains in the foreseeable future making this market relatively unattractive.
This leaves increasing the bulk of the supply of dwellings to social housing and it is unlikely the state or federal government will come to the party given the cost of land and the required infrastructure.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
