Shock list: Which PM led the biggest building booms in SA

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Shock new analysis of Australia’s home building history has revealed Coalition governments have overseen the biggest and fastest increases in the number of Aussie homes since 1955.

Anthony Albanese has been in the top job for 438,115 new home builds, and been ranked as Labor’s best leader yet for getting homes built fast at 480 a day.

But he’s only fourth overall — and barely in the top 10 for those to have presided over the biggest numbers of builds.

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Housing Industry Association analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics building completions data pegs John Howard as Australia’s biggest building PM to date, having overseen the creation of almost 1.7 million new residences over 11 years.

The fastest was Malcolm Turnbull, whose tenure averaged 580 new homes a day, followed by Scott Morrison at 511.

Both were well short of the 657.5 daily builds across houses, townhouses and apartments, needed to reach the National Housing Accord’s 1.2 million new homes target by 2029.

A key Albanese government policy to boost home construction in a bid to remedy the Aussie housing crisis, Property Council of Australia forecasts indicate the nation will miss the goal by 462,000 homes.

PM Howard dons a hard hat at the Boral timber processing plant in Murwillumbah.Pic John Feder.02/09/04.

John Howard has been revealed as Australia’s biggest building PM.

The ABS data up to September 2024 showed Albo is ninth overall for the nation’s biggest building leaders, behind Julia Gillard, though he has also faced a period of rising interest rates, as well as a significant increase in the cost of building that industry groups have partially linked to Scott Morrison’s HomeBuilder scheme.

The next tranch of ABS data through to January is scheduled for release on April 16.

Since July 1955, John Howard is the only PM to oversee the construction of 1.2 million homes.

Bob Hawke was the next most prolific behind Howard, with 1,182,642 new houses and units created during his time in office.

The figures also show that since mid-1955 Liberal governments have overseen the construction of almost 6.195 million new homes nationwide — an average of 140,793 a year.

PM Malcolm Turnbull was revealed to be the fastest building PM, averaging 580 builds per day.

Meanwhile the ALP was in power for the construction of a little over 3.571 million additional residences — 111,606 a year.

If Anthony Albanese survives this year’s federal election, HIA is estimating it would take him almost six years in office to reach the Accord’s 1.2 million homes target — meaning he would need to win a further election in 2028 to see it happen as Australian PM.

The Association’s economist Maurice Tapang said many keys to past government successes were either no longer viable, or could not be sustained for five years.

Mr Tapang said while Malcolm Turnbull had overseen the most rapid increase in new homes in Australian history, it was unlikely to be recreated.

PM Anthony Albanese is ninth overall for the nation’s biggest building leaders, behind Julia Gillard. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

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“But a lot of that would have been from foreign investment into apartments, which brought a lot of those projects online and got them over the line with lenders,” Mr Tapang said.

“Now, at state level they are taxed more heavily.”

John Howard’s implementation of the Goods and Services Tax first brought forward substantial demand as buyer numbers surged before it came into effect, and then got a boost with the creation of the First Home Buyer Grant scheme.

Mr Howard also created the concept of a grants scheme for first-home buyers, first offering them $7000 in 2000, before raising that figure to $14,000 for a short time in 2021.

PM Kevin Rudd tours building site at Westminster Primary school where they are building an early childhood Centre.

Kevin Rudd boosted support for those building a home to $21,000 during his time in office.

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In 2008, Kevin Rudd boosted support for those building a home to $21,000.

The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute that subsequently established this led to an increase in home prices that had priced future homebuyers out of the market.

In 2020, Scott Morrison implemented the HomeBuilder scheme, which offered up to $25,000 in grants for new housing construction in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

By its end, the federal government had spent $2.63bn in grants supporting the construction of about 93,400 new homes and the substantial renovation of a further 20,000 nationwide as a result.

But it also put significant pressure on builders who signed thousands of fixed contracts with buyers, just before a rapid increase in costs. The result has been significant numbers of builders collapsing.

“His approach needed to be short lived, you wouldn’t have that in for three years,” Mr Tapang said.

Bob Hawke was the second most prolific building PM behind Howard, with 1,182,642 new houses and units created during his time in office.

Today, Mr Tapang said a federal leader determined to build more homes in the next three years would need to look at changing taxation on home construction, forcing state governments to find greater planning efficiency and boosting the number of Aussie tradies.

The economist added that with the cost of tradies and home building materials surging since the Albanese government took office, there were also limitations on buyer demand.

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However, opposition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar, who worked across housing issues under both Mr Morrison and Mr Turnbull, the nation’s two fastest builders, said the key to building more homes was first-home buyers.

Aust politician Julia Gillard wearing a hard hat and vest looking over the Northern Expressway road with Aust politician Tony Zappia (l).

Julia Gillard ranked as the sixth-fasted home building PM, averaging 412 builds per day.

“Through successful initiatives like the Home Guarantee Scheme, the HomeBuilder program, and First Home Super Saver Scheme, we boosted the number of first home buyers from around 100,000 a year when we took office to 180,000 in our final full year of government,” Mr Sukkar said.

“This proves that when a government prioritises home ownership, real results follow.”

Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia chief executive Anja Pannek said federal government schemes such as the Home Guarantee, which allows buyers to purchase with a 5 per cent deposit with the remainder backed by the federal government, played an important role in helping Australians achieve home ownership.

“With continued increases in property prices, access to federal and state-based grants

and schemes make the home ownership dream possible for many Australians,” she said.

What we saw in South Australia

When it comes to getting homes into the hands of those who need them, John Howard has done more than any other Prime Minister in recent history.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, almost 100,000 – 99,463, to be precise – homes were built in South Australia between March 1996 and December 2007 under the leadership of the nation’s 25th Prime Minister.

His lightest period for home builds was 1997’s March quarter, when just 1228 homes were completed in SA – 1074 of these being detached houses and 164 in multi-unit complexes.

This is in stark contrast with the 3085 built in 2004’s December quarter when 3085 homes were completed – 2047 detached and 1038 were in multi-unit complexes.

Labor PM Bob Hawke had the second-highest amount of homes built under his leadership at 92,853, while Keating took out third place with 43,924.

According to the data, SA’s biggest quarter for building completions was in 2018’s December quarter under Liberal PM Scott Morrison’s leadership. Some 3912 homes were completed in this quarter – 2386 of these freestanding, and 1526 in multi-unit complexes.

Morrison narrowly edged out Hawke who recorded 3664 in 1985’s December quarter and 3594 in 1984’s September quarter – claiming the second and third busiest quarters for building in SA.

Labor PM Anthony Albanese claimed fourth and fifth spots with 3583 homes and 3566 homes in 2022’s June and September quarters.