2021-22 Land Monitor Report Release & Launch

Wagga Wagga is grappling with a two to three-year lag in its housing supply, according to the newly released 2021-22 Land Monitor Report.

Taking part in the Land Monitor Report launch are (from left) HIA Chair Tony Balding, valuer Bob Connolly, RDA Riverina Research Officer Melanie Renkin and Committee 4 Wagga Chair Adam Drummond. Bob and Melanie were instrumental in compiling the report.

Housing Industry Association (HIA) Wagga chairman Tony Balding cited the shortfall as one of the major points raised by the report, which was launched at the Wagga RSL Club on Friday.

“We only put out 171 blocks this year. This is normally around 300 or 400 and it’s where we’ve got a two or three-year lag,” Mr Balding said.

HIA Wagga partnered with Committee 4 Wagga and RDA Riverina to publish the report.

Mr Balding said concerns around the current shortage in residential lots were eased to some extent by promising future projections for the city.

“There are some big numbers involved in those developments in the north and south of Wagga, which is heartening to see,” he said.

The report estimates that 1190 to 1714 new dwellings will be required by 2026 should population projections be accurate. More than 1000 lots will be available for sub-division by late 2025, while close to another 10,000 would be in the pipeline.

Committee 4 Wagga chair Adam Drummond said drastic housing supply and demand issues during the past 18 months had resulted in less than a 1 percent vacancy rate in the city.

“This issue has been driven by metropolitan migration to regional NSW and the after-effects of a generous stimulus package during Covid,” Mr Drummond said.

“And it will potentially be exasperated 10-fold once major projects in the region have started and workers - both within the existing workforce and project personnel - need housing.”

Mr Drummond said the report should be used as a map by local and state governments to fast-track developments and infrastructure in the areas identified as “ready to build on”.

“C4W is constantly pushing for outside-the-box thinking by government agencies and those responsible for the liveability of the city,” Mr Drummond said.

RDA Riverina researcher Melanie Renkin, who compiled the report, said “just keeping up may not be enough” in the short term.

“From current numbers it looks like we are keeping up with population growth, but that doesn’t account for some of the rental stress that people are having as well as increasing prices,” she said.

The report was released to coincide with the Wagga Economics Lunch.

Keynote speaker was HIA’s senior economist Nicolas Ward, who said the Federal Government’s commitment to build a million new homes in the next decade represented a solution but added the report emphasised the lack of available land in growing centres such as Wagga.