House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-11-27 Daily Xml

Contents

Housing Affordability

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (15:09): My question is again to the Minister for Housing. How much has the median cost of a home increased under Labor and does the minister believe that it is achievable for South Australians saving for a home to keep up with increasing costs? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TELFER: According to the Valuer-General, the median house price in metropolitan Adelaide has increased by 35 per cent and more than $200,000 from March 2022 to September 2025.

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION (Taylor—Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Housing Infrastructure, Minister for Planning) (15:10): There is house price growth right across the country and that is because we have a full employment market, we have a growing South Australian economy and we have a lot of reasons for optimism because of all the other work the government is doing.

What we are doing in terms of housing is adding to supply and, as I said before, supply of all the categories. Public housing: is it going up or down? It is going up. Community housing: is it going up or down? It is going up. Private housing: is it going up or down? It is going up. What you are seeing is us working with the industry. The reason why the HIA give us number one in terms of policymaking across the country, the reason why they say our policy settings are right, is because we work with them and we listen to them and we are looking at supply-side reform. Why does the Business Council of Australia say we have the best planning system? Because we are looking at delivery of—

Mr Telfer interjecting:

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION: The member for Flinders is claiming work that is not his party's, but be that as it may, I will not enter into debate. I will ignore his interjections. But the point about it is that it doesn't matter which industry group you look at, they are backing in the government's Housing Roadmap because they know what we know and what every major commentator knows: you have to increase supply. Everybody across the country understands that. But how do you do it?

The government has set out a clear plan with clear pathways and clear reforms, and what do we see from those figures? A record trifecta of figures in terms of completions, in terms of commencements and in terms of under construction. What does that mean? It means that we are building more homes, we have more commenced and more under construction and that is our goal and we won't rest until we have the Australian dream back in the reach of South Australians.