My DIY plan to help ease the housing crisis..

Communities need to band together & be open to new ideas' 'We must re-learn vital skills & get our own homes built again'

- BY ERIN McCAFFERTY

PROGRESS New-build housing development

HARRISON Gardner is the TV host who shows homeowners how to DIY on a budget — and he's back with a new series tonight.

The 36-year-old Australian presenter of RTE's Build your Own Home, a TV show on which he teaches building skills to complete novices, says the key to fixing the housing crisis involves changing our mindset about property.

“We have to broaden the conversation around the housing crisis,” he tells The Star, “It's going to take so much more than just one political party, or one policy, to solve the crisis. We need to stop pointing the finger and start looking at solutions.

“As a community, and culturally, we need to be open to new ideas.”

He gives the example of community-led housing schemes and community land trusts -situations where communities come together to build houses or apartment blocks together. In doing so, they cut out the developer and build them at a considerably cheaper rate.

“There are situations around the world, in London, Melbourne and Austria for example, where people have banded together and successfully got the price down to a truly affordable level, one which is indexed to the average income in the area,” he says.

Gardner has a lifetime of experience in construction. He grew up in New South Wales in a house his parents built themselves. After finishing school at age 17, he left Australia to travel the world.