Housing crisis to take a generation to fix

0:00One of Australia's biggest lenders has warned it'll take a generation for the housing crisis to be fixed. The housing minister this afternoon said the stark prediction won't surprise announcing more funding for emergency housing. Nick McCallum has the story. It's depressing news for so many young Australians trying to buy a home, like 30-year-old Matthew NG who's still living with his parents and devastated by this prediction about the housing supply crisis created by tax changes, interest rates and huge demand. This is a challenge that is likely to take the better part of a generation to resolve. It's quite depressing. If I have to find something affordable, I'll have to move further and further away, which is not something I'm looking to do. The housing minister today promised a further $145 million for crisis accommodation.

1:03But overall, the government's flagship home building program is way behind schedule. And the minister did not challenge the NAB prediction. Do you think it will take that long? Look, I'm not going to put an exact number of years on it. What I can be really clear about is that it took more than one generation to build this problem. For the housing accord, they agreed with the states to build something like 1.2 million homes over five years. We're now more than two years into that agreement and yet we're running way below target. And the prediction by the NAB chief economist has infuriated many local real estate agents. They accuse her of making a bad situation even worse by eroding the confidence of prospective young home buyers.