‘Simply not enough homes’: Private market targeted in Qld rental crisis

The State Government is looking to hundreds of homes within the private sector to solve Queensland’s drastic social housing squeeze - but the LNP housing spokesman says the program will just make matters worse.

Hundreds of homes will be sourced from the private market and used for social housing amid warnings of already extremely low vacancy rates in the Sunshine State.

The LNP opposition has seized on the new state government program – dubbed ‘Help to Home’ – claiming it will make problems even worse for Queensland’s under-pressure private rental market.

But the state’s Housing Department has insisted the program will preference newly built homes, or those not usually available to the private rental market.

Under the initiative, the government will house up to 1,000 households over a period of two years, with properties to be sourced from the private market.

Up to 1000 homes will be sourced from the private market for the program.

The Housing Department has confirmed it will make a call to market this month for “new to market properties” that can be leased to the department and community housing providers.

A Housing Department spokeswoman insisted that with over 500,000 rental properties in Queensland, the 1,000 properties that would be part of the ‘Help to Home’ program would account for “less than .2 per cent increase in demand”.

“The development of this initiative was conducted through modelling which mapped the then rental market against regional and subregional locations,” she said.

“That is why the strategy is seeking to add additional rental supply to the market through new homes, or homes not in the private rental pool at present.”

But the plan has attracted criticism from LNP housing spokesman Tim Mander, who says it will make problems worse for Queensland’s “dire rental market”.

LNP housing spokesman Tim Mander. Photographer: Liam Kidston

“Queensland’s rental market is as tight as it’s ever been,” he said.

“We know there are dual income families being squeezed out of the rental market across the state because there’s simply not enough homes.”

A Real Estate Institute of Queensland Report revealed last week that vacancy rates in Queensland’s residential market were extremely tight.

Their report highlighted vacancy rates of 1 per cent in Logan, 0.9 per cent in Ipswich, and 0.6 per cent in Redcliffe for the December quarter.

Housing Minister Leeanne Enoch hit back at Mr Mander, saying: “Headleasing properties is a longstanding supply option that the department has been funding since the early 1990s and remains a vital tool today in addressing the current pressures in the rental market.”

Housing Minister Leeanne Enoch. Picture: Liam Kidston

As of December 31, the Housing Department was already funding non-government providers to headlease about 1900 properties across Queensland.

Tenants in ‘Help to Home’ properties will still pay the same income based rent, with the rest of the rental bill for the property to be covered by the state government.