Informing a strategy for circular economy housing in Australia

This final Inquiry report informs a strategy to facilitate circular economy housing: from construction, through operation to demolition. It draws on four coordinated research projects. The gravity and urgency of the climate emergency and the housing affordability crisis together warrant a significant, coordinated national effort to recalibrate the housing industry and ensure its sustainable future. A comprehensive CE strategy will: lift sustainability as a priority shift market processes tilt incentives to attract the appropriate investment build capacities towards circular and sustainable outcomes. An effective CE strategy must include a politically astute vision; robust legal footing; industry-relevant application; and be capable enforcement. Specialist in-depth investigation of Australian institutional settings, market processes and stakeholder capacities are now required to reflect and propose suitable instruments adapted to local conditions. The research makes five high-level recommendations to inform a CE housing strategy, including providing a picture of what needs to change and four recommendations showing how change might occur. Effective change requires measures that actively shift perceptions of value and priority-framing in decision-making to those that favour CE housing outcomes. Housing industry organisations cannot meet this challenge without purposeful public intervention and stakeholder cooperation.