Housing a 'big focus' in next week's budget: Treasurer

Local builders say the ACT government needs to get a move on with local planning reforms to ensure the territory can hit its target of 5800 to 6380 new dwellings a year for the next five years.

That's how many houses and units the ACT needs to achieve its portion of the "ambitious but achievable" target of 1.2 million well-located homes under the revamped National Housing Accord.

Master Builders ACT chief executive Michael Hopkins said local builders "have been warning of the high cost of regulation and low productivity due to the ACT government reform agenda for months."

"The ACT government needs to ... pull its weight on planning reform, development approval timeframes, land release policies, over-regulation and infrastructure construction."

ACT Planning Minister Chris Steel will release a statement of planning priorities for the territory in the next fortnight.

"The ACT is using a combination of planning reforms, new suburban land release and tax reforms to increase housing supply and improve affordability," he said.

Mr Hopkins said Master Builders' most recent housing forecast, published this month, showed it was possible for the ACT to achieve its housing targets "if all the policy levers of government are pulling in the same direction".

Dr Chalmers said there was an ongoing negotiation with premiers and chief ministers over measures needed to reach the national target, agreed to by the Prime Minister, premiers and chief ministers at their August national cabinet meeting.

"That does involve a lot of state and territory responsibility," he told ABC radio on Wednesday.

"We're prepared to do our bit ... We need the states and territories to play a role as well."

The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council on Friday revealed the federal government is forecast to fall 250,000 dwellings short of its five-year target to build 1.2 million well-located homes.

Canberra builder Sunny Malhotra is the owner of Sunny Homes, which employs more than 100 workers including subcontractors. He said the ongoing shortage of skilled tradespeople was driving up costs.

Mr Malhotra, who has worked in the ACT building and construction sector for 12 years, said the high cost of securing land for development was a barrier.

"It's hard to find good quality people," he said.

"There was a big shortage of bricklayers last year, same with the stonemasons, there's a lot of big shortage and the same with the carpenters at the moment."

To illustrate how significantly labour shortages could drive up prices, he explained that bricklayers had hiked their rate from $1.20 to $2 per brick in 2022-23.

This spike, attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, had only slightly moderated to the current rate of $1.50 per brick, Mr Malhotra said.

The government announced on Wednesday that the budget would include $90.6 million to boost the number of skilled workers in the construction and housing sector, by increasing free TAFE places and making it easier for appropriately qualified migrants to work in the local building industry.

ACT Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Housing Yvette Berry said the ACT government "looks forward to continuing to work with the Commonwealth on our shared goal to increase housing supply" including through the CSIRO Ginninderra land release.