Dr Shane Geha’s Insights:
With the Housing Crisis impacting Sydney and Australia overall, the Australian Arab Business Council hosted an insightful program at La Castelle in Bankstown on solving the housing crisis, led by special guest Dr Shane Geha from EG Property Group. Geha touched on many issues, but began his remarks by highlighting that houses are getting smaller and more distant from the city.
Geha highlighted how drastically houses have become expensive since the 1960s. He mentioned that in the 60s, a detached house on a quarter-acre block would have cost you three times the average annual income, but nowadays a smaller block, 20 km from the city, costs a person fourteen times the average annual income.
Additionally, Geha pointed out the reasons for the housing crisis, including a lack of supply, inflation, land release, poor planning, and tight lending rules. Despite Sydney being one of the most expensive cities in the world, Geha praised Sydney as “one of the most beautiful cities in the world”.
Regarding fees and charges, Geha expressed that they are like heroin and he doesn’t see them reduced, and also told everyone a harsh reality of GST not being removed on houses. Additionally, Geha ended his remarks by saying we live in a great country and have a housing crisis, which we can use new rules to address, so we can build more houses.
Business Leaders Perspectives:
The event brought many people from various businesses, including the Director of Beautify Australia Alliance, Adnan Diab, who said the event was beneficial. “I guess the subject is very important, but it’s also a small part of a big problem, and that’s why I say if you don’t work with a vision in mind it makes it very hard to actually focus on achieving a goal, otherwise you’re just patching and what was happening tonight and whatever way you’re talking about is, just a patch in a big problem,” Diab emphasized.
Diab said that the housing crisis does impact his business, but a little bit and sort of reduces it; however, his business strives to provide the best paint which stays for life, so when people want to sell their house, they don’t have to repaint and lose 10 to $15,000 on painting.
Director of ACA Home Loans, Canna Cao, who has been running the business for 27 years, also attended the event and said it was informative and that she learned a lot. Cao pointed out that builders need to build more properties, and prices are too high. Cao highlighted that the housing crisis does impact her business.
“So the affordability is the problem and the people, the borrowing power is getting less and less, but you know the house price went up very quickly, but their income doesn’t really catch up,” Cao highlighted.
Wrap Up:
Overall, the event provided attendees to engage in meaningful dialogue and network with various business leaders. Additionally, food and drinks were provided along with coffee and a selection of fruits to wrap up the event.
