Away from home on census night? Your home considered 'unoccupied' with a million others, warns HIA

IF YOU ARE AWAY from home tonight, Census night, your home will be recorded as 'unoccupied' according to HIA senior economist Tom Devitt. And you will could therefore be  misrepresented as being part of the housing supply problem.

“As usual, someone will claim it is one of a million vacant homes that could be utilised to solve Australia’s housing shortage,” Mr Devitt said.

“This and other myths are part of the cause of Australia's housing shortage.

“Every Census the myth of the vacant home resurfaces. Around 10% of Australian homes are recorded as unoccupied on Census night and this is quickly transformed into the claim that Australia has a million vacant homes.

“Unoccupied is not vacant," he said.

“If you're on holiday, away for work, staying with family, in hospital, or simply somewhere else on Census night, your home may be unoccupied. It hasn't suddenly become a vacant home available to solve Australia's housing shortage.

“A home may also be between tenants or owners, newly completed and awaiting occupation, undergoing renovations, part of a deceased estate, or a holiday home.

“A holiday home on the coast does not solve a rental shortage in Sydney. A farmhouse hundreds of kilometres from employment does not house a worker in Melbourne.

“The proportion of Australian homes recorded as unoccupied on Census night has remained remarkably stable over many decades. Vacant homes are not the ‘smoking gun’ that can solve Australia’s housing shortage," Mr Devitt said.

“State governments have even attempted to place a tax on these vacant homes and failed to find meaningful numbers of homes.

“Taxing genuinely vacant homes might sound appealing. But if governments can't find them, it starts to look a lot like taxing a unicorn.

“The tax system already provides investors with a very strong incentive to make their properties available to tenants. An investment property generally needs to be rented or genuinely available for rent for the owner to claim rental property deductions. An investor deliberately withholding a property from the rental market cannot simply claim the associated costs as though the property were producing rental income.

“The idea that enormous numbers of investors are deliberately leaving homes empty while simultaneously enjoying the benefits of negative gearing misunderstands how the tax system works.

“More importantly, it distracts attention from the actual housing problem," he said.

“Australia has a shortage of housing stock in the locations, of the types and at the prices households need.

“Rental vacancy rates remain critically low. Rents are rising. Home prices are elevated and household formation is being suppressed.

“These are symptoms of a housing market where demand exceeds supply.

“Australia is effectively trying to accommodate demand from around 11 million households with substantially fewer suitable and available homes.

“Yet every Census we rediscover around a million homes that happen to be unoccupied on one particular night and convince ourselves that perhaps Australia doesn't need to build more homes after all.

“The solution to a shortage of homes is considerably less exciting, but much more effective.

“Build more homes.

“And if you're spending Census night at your partner's house, visiting your parents, in hospital, away for work or enjoying a holiday, don't worry.

“Your home hasn't suddenly become the solution to Australia's housing shortage,” Mr Devitt said.

ww.hia.com.au

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