Australia's housing shortage is likely to get much worse before it gets any better, reports property research group RP Data, because construction of new housing continues to fall well behind the number of properties required.

Recent figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) suggest that residential property developers are still cautious of soft market conditions-despite a fundamental undersupply of residential housing stock and record high levels of population growth. "The net results of these factors are that low supply additions and strong population growth are at odds with each other. At the base level, we're seeing demand for housing far outstripping supply additions, and the situation is becoming worse," Lawless said.

"To add to this, the pressure is building on the rental market. Vacancy rates are averaging less than 2% across the nation's capital cities, and rental rates for houses increased by 11% over the past 12 months." He added that he'd expect to see rises in weekly rental rates "of a similar magnitude over the coming year. Over the year ending June 2008, approximately 157,000 new dwellings commenced construction, well below the 200,000 dwellings estimated to be required, according to the Commonwealth Treasury. - Source RP Data