Alan Kohler

So she knows more than most about what it takes to get more housing and what demand looks like.

In her new job, she's supervising the collection of housing demand and supply data.

doing forecasts and keeping an eye on how the Housing Accord target of 1.2 million homes in five years from the middle of 2024 is going.

The answer is that they're behind, according to the council, and won't make the deadline.

But perhaps the most fundamental issue, and we get onto this in the interview, is will housing actually get more affordable or does Australia have to get used to the way it is now?

That is...

will the affordability crisis turn into a permanent crisis?

Well, to answer that and more, here's Susan Lloyd Hurwitz, Chair of the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council.

G'day, Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz.

Thanks for joining us on That's Business.

It's a pleasure.

Thanks for having me.

Now, there have been a lot of developments in the past week on housing policy.

Are you surprised that it's now become a focus of both major parties?

Both major parties are now talking about demand as well as supply.

Is that a good thing now?

And has it taken too long to get to that?

So the budget from the government obviously was largely about the redistribution of tax and wealth in the name of intergenerational fairness.

The opposition in its budget applies talking about immigration and number of people versus number of houses.

So do you think the fundamental problem is tax and wealth distribution or is it the build and supply number of people issue?