Have you heard that the Sunshine Coast is experiencing a housing crisis? If you haven’t then you must have been enjoying extended post COVID overseas travel!
The housing crisis has been the hottest property topic over the past six months and although it is a broader issue affecting more than just Southeast Queensland, the Sunshine Coast is one of the worst affected regions in Australia.
The media have morphed this into a ‘housing affordability issue’ however the exigency extends well beyond the lower socio-economic demographic. Indeed, the new homeless have jobs, families and resources, but limited prospects of the most essential human requirement, shelter.
The Queensland Government’s Land Supply Monitoring Program confirms the Sunshine Coast is falling 25% short of meeting the 4 year Approved Dwelling Supply Target for the region.
By 2041 this will equate to a shortage of 12,300 dwellings within our existing built up areas. And the issue is even more grave in Noosa with only 0.6 years of forward-supply planned.
Source: Land Supply and Development Monitoring Reports 2020, 2021 Note: Short Term Supply of Detached Dwellings = Approved supply. Target is 4 years of Supply.
The obvious question is how could the equilibrium between supply and demand of dwellings become so unbalanced and how can this be fixed?
The simple answer is that both State and Local Governments need to loosen current restrictive planning controls to enable the development industry to increase supply.
The Queensland Government has taken the first step, announcing at their recent Housing Crisis Forum that the review of the SEQ Regional Plan will be fast tracked for release by September 2023.
With it they’ve promised expansion to established urban areas, as well as changes to the way social and affordable housing approvals can be delivered.
The Sunshine Coast Council has embarked on the preparation of a new planning scheme for our region with industry groups lobbying hard for changes that will facilitate increased supply of both greenfield and infill housing.
However, there is a silver lining to this chronic shortage of housing stock in the property market.
With vacancy rates in our rental market reaching an all-time low of below 0.5% and rental benchmarks increasing, it is a great time for investors to expand their portfolios in the residential market.
Unfortunately, there is no quick fix to the current problem. However, as the post COVID Bull market is normalising, and construction costs start to return to viable levels, all sectors of the development industry must increase dwelling supply through responsible planning for growth in our region.
For more information, please contact Andrew Stevens on 5443 2844.
Project Urban is a specialist development consultancy working throughout Queensland and New South Wales. We deliver town planning, surveying, urban design, landscape architecture, project management, liquor licensing and marine structure services for property developers, businesses and individuals.
