Thousands of vacant homes prompts calls for change

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Recent official estimates show that despite Australia’s housing crisis there's more than a hundred thousand homes standing empty. Now state governments are being urged to do more to stop property owners leaving homes vacant and derelict.

Transcript

00:00Empty apartment blocks, derelict commercial buildings, and terraces in trendy suburbs,

00:09all sitting idle in the midst of a housing crisis.

00:12Unless a house is posing a risk to our community, there's very little local governments can

00:18do.

00:19Across the country, it's estimated up to 140,000 homes are empty, according to data captured

00:26by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2021.

00:30The pandemic will have affected the numbers, and some properties will be waiting on development

00:35approvals or legal disputes, but many owners are hoarding land as its value increases.

00:40I've seen other properties within about 500 metres of where we are now do just that, that

00:47they have sat vacant, underutilised, and ultimately the property owner sold the property for millions

00:55of dollars.

00:56To free up more homes, Victoria has mirrored moves overseas and introduced a vacant residential

01:02land tax.

01:03But law professor Cathy Sherry says state governments could go further.

01:08The state government absolutely can acquire land for any purpose it wants.

01:12It will pay compensation under the Just Terms Act.

01:16But the real estate sector isn't on board.

01:19It becomes very difficult, I think, when the government starts to impose on somebody

01:25what they can and can't do with the property.

01:28These houses have had the same owners for about 40 years, and neighbours say they're

01:34actually in the best condition they've been in for at least two decades.

01:38I've been here for 25 years, since 99, and it's been like that, actually it's been worse

01:44than this since then.

01:47Unless anything changes, they could remain empty for a lot longer still.

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