National strata property sector set to hit $2trn by 2020
The peak body for Australia’s strata sector says the national sector is set to be worth more than $2 trillion by 2020.
Recently re-elected Strata Community Australia National President, Erik Adriaanse, says the challenge now is for Government to keep pace with strata industry reform.
“It’s pretty clear that Australians now want to live in or buy into strata title property, and as a result our sector has experienced a phenomenal rate of growth, with no obvious sign of slowing down.”
“Around 26% of Australians live in the apartments, units and townhouses covered by strata, and we’re expecting that these properties will account for over 50 percent of our housing supply in the future,” Mr Adriaanse said today.
Mr Adriaanse says that current valuations have the national strata sector sitting at $1.2 trillion in building replacement costs. With apartments and units surging ahead of houses when it comes to development approvals, it’s entirely possible that this value will hit $2 trillion by 2020.
“For many of the property stakeholders currently in the Australian market, a “home among the gum trees” is a dream they simply have never had, and developers are kicking into overdrive to match these new tastes. Australians are embracing an inner city life because that is where the jobs are.”
Mr Adriaanse says as the peak organisation, SCA will work to ensure this growth is sustained over the coming years. It’s recently taken the biggest step yet to guarantee that goal.
In conjunction with the Construction and Property Services Industry Skills Council (CPSISC), SCA is on its way to creating one of Australia’s next big job pathways, by making licenses available to strata managers in all state and territories.
“The new qualification standards will not only skill up our existing workforce, but allow those wanting to enter our booming sector in a professional manner, to attain Certificate III or IV in Strata Community Title Management or a Diploma of the same kind.”
“In five years we may be seeing strata managers graduate from university and that’s a huge step forward for our sector.”
“With the sector’s expansion occurring so quickly, this move takes us a big step closer to ensuring that this growing population will be met with the highest professional practices the sector has ever seen.”
“We’ve recently tabled the first draft of these qualifications and we expect them to be available for State Government implementation by 2016.”
Beyond this incumbent positive change however, there are a number of issues which till plague the sector and Mr Adriaanse is adamant more must be done by Government to avoid stalled growth in one of Australia’s fastest growing economic contributors.
“The single biggest issue affecting the forward momentum of our sector is the state of property law reform around the country.”
“The legislation governing strata communities is way behind where it should be in a number of states and territories, and that’s affecting not only how thousands of industry professionals operate, but also how millions of property owners and residents live.”
“Overdue reform has received the appropriate attention from Government in New South Wales and Victoria, but some of our biggest strata states, like Queensland, are yet to embrace this necessary change.”
“1 in every 4 Australians live in the apartments, units and townhouses of our sector and State Governments all around the country need to ensure the standard of living of their residents isn’t below the standards of those in other regions.”
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