A lack of affordable rental homes on the Sunshine Coast with vacancy rates under 1%, compared to Brisbane’s vacancy rate of 3.3%, highlights just how tight the rental market currently is.
The housing market was tight before COVID, but has now become a crisis, creating distress. My office gets regular calls from Sunshine Coast residents who genuinely can’t find a rental due to the competition and lack of supply.
For the last decade there’s been a falling pipeline of supply of dwellings in the area while the population has increased. It’s time for the State Government to act on a problem and this can be done with respect for the town plan but more timely decision making and infrastructure.
The answer for affordability and availability is the construction of more homes in the private rental pool and that needs a change of State Government policy.
Part of the answer is the State Government needs a genuine ‘build to rent’ incentive program that attracts private investment, particularly mum and dad investors, to build new homes for the rental market in this region.
I also think council needs to consider how to encourage greater housing options, including granny flats for families with multi-generational living just as one strand in the housing mix.
Queensland has not kept up with the population growth as housing approvals plummeted and the population rose.
In the last decade Queensland produced less housing stock than in the decade before.
The housing affordability crisis in Queensland is mainly because of the State Government’s poor planning and lack of infrastructure investment.
I would urge the State Government to work with councils to help attract investment to bring a variety of home types to the market, (not just inner city units), particularly for renters, in a timely way.
Other States are doing more to incentivise and deliver more “build to rent” options than Queensland which is behind the eight ball.
It’s time this was reformed and the program genuinely made available to bring a greater variety of rental product, people’s new homes, to regional markets.
