SA and WA rank highest in 2026 planning reform scorecard

The Housing Institute of Australia (HIA) has launched its 2026 Planning Blueprint Scorecard, rating the nation’s states and territories primarily based on their planning system reforms within the 2024/25 monetary yr.

The HIA’s scorecard, which was established in 2024, audits every jurisdiction in keeping with themes from the federal authorities’s 2023 Nationwide Planning Reform Blueprint – a 10-point blueprint that units out a framework for Australia’s states and territories to enhance their housing provide and affordability. The evaluation is scored out of 5 primarily based on every state’s planning methods and initiatives to attain their share of the Nationwide Housing Accord’s goal.

In response to a launch from the HIA, this yr’s scorecard outcomes reveal “a rising divide between states embracing daring reforms and people caught in a ‘business-as-usual’ method.”

In 2026, South Australia and Western Australia tied prime place, with each states reaching an combination rating of three out of 5, as they did within the HIA’s inaugural 2024 scorecard. The HIA’s media launch attributes this to large-scale rezoning and land launch applications throughout each states, in addition to expanded improvement evaluation panels and exemptions for single homes in WA, and digital improvements for a single planning scheme alongside a land provide dashboard in SA. For comparable causes, SA additionally fared greatest within the HIA’s 2025 Housing Coverage Scoreboard.

Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory tied second within the 2026 planning reforms scorecard, with a rating of two.5 out of 5.0, adopted by New South Wales and Tasmania, which each scored 2.0 out of 5.0. Of those outcomes, NSW confirmed essentially the most progress, advancing from a 2025 rating of 1.5, which the HIA attributes to the state’s pre-endorsed design sample books and new improvement coordination authority. Victoria additionally improved on their unique rating of two.0.

The bottom scores got here from Queensland and the Northern Territory, which every achieved 1.5 out of 5.0 – the identical rating as in 2024.

HIA govt director of planning and improvement Sam Heckel mirrored, “In most components of the nation, we’re nonetheless seeing a crucial disconnect between the housing provide targets of the nationwide cupboard and the ground-level actuality of native authorities delays and restrictive zoning.”

“Disappointingly, no jurisdiction has scored larger than three out of 5 on their planning reforms. HIA is looking for Commonwealth management to offer the ‘greatest apply’ toolkit – together with AI-driven evaluation software program and design sample books.”

In response to Heckel, these initiatives must be supported by planning exemptions and digital portals for planning submissions and land provide monitoring.

In response, the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) warned that the HIA’s scorecard method dangers complicated the depth of every state’s reform agendas with the precise efficiency of their planning methods and the standard of outcomes they’re producing.

“Reform is essential, however the actual measure of success is whether or not it produces extra properties in nice communities,” PIA CEO Matt Collins commented. “Communities don’t expertise ‘reform’. They expertise whether or not properties get constructed, how lengthy it takes, what it prices, and whether or not infrastructure retains tempo.”

Collins believes that, to speed up housing supply, there must be transparency and knowledge on the place delays and blockages happen within the supply pipeline.

“What’s lacking is a federal government-led nationwide dashboard that brings collectively comparable housing knowledge on planning and constructing approvals, development commencements, completion instances and housing supply constraints,” he mentioned. “Till we are able to see the total image throughout the nation, we’re debating reform exercise as an alternative of evaluating efficiency. We have to observe the coverage and funding settings that genuinely enhance housing outcomes.”

The whole outcomes of the 2026 Planning Blueprint Scorecard may be accessed through the Housing Institute of Australia web site.