Sunshine Coast Daily’s Locked Out campaign puts affordable housing crisis under spotlight

As the Coast population continues to grow, experts are warning Baby Boomers are set to price out essential workers when it comes to finding somewhere to live.

An onslaught of Baby Boomers with their eyes set on retiring on the Sunshine Coast would further price out low-income workers desperately needed to fire up the economy, a leading demographer said.

The call comes as the Sunshine Coast Daily launches the Locked Out campaign, which aims to shed light on the need for affordable housing in the region.

The Demographics Group executive director Bernard Salt said the region could be suffering from the “Manhattan effect” where only the wealthy could afford to live on Manhattan Island.

“However every city, including New York and the Sunshine Coast, needs essential workers to make the city work,” he said.

“Without a deep local pool of low-skilled labour (supplemented by backpackers and international students) where do we get cleaners, fruit pickers, waiters, taxi drivers, labourers.”

Local councils have acknowledged the Coast was in a housing crisis with Noosa Mayor Clare Stewart describing it as the worst the tourism hotspot town had experienced.

Demographer Bernard Salt warns the Coast is suffering form the “Manhattan effect”. Picture: David Caird

Figures, released by the Residential Tenancies Authority, show median rental prices for a two-bedroom flat in the Sunshine Coast Council region were $450 in the last June quarter – up from $365 at the same time last year.

Noosa’s median price was $510 – up from $400.

Mr Salt said the issue would only become worse with five million Baby Boomers nationwide on the cusp of retiring which would further price out the “battlers” from the real estate market.

“If there is no intervention and the current situation continues as I think it will then what manifests is a process by which the market filters in the well-to-do and filters out the battlers,” he said.

Sunshine Coast Council Mayor Mark Jamieson said part of the challenge was the region’s low rate of state government-owned social housing.

Mr Jamieson said less than two per cent of the region’s housing stock was made up of social housing, half of the state average of four per cent.

“We’re well behind,” he said.

“With the way the cost of housing is increasing, that situation is not going to change for a while in my view,” Mr Jamieson said.

Ms Stewart said the Noosa Council was reviewing its land holdings to identify suitable sites for low-cost housing.

Coast2Bay chief executive Andrew Elvin said the issue could be addressed by constructing houses and units specifically for rentals.

“In the medium term over the next six to 12 months we need to accelerate schemes to build more dwellings that are designed for rentals,” Mr Elvin said.

Property Council Queensland executive director Jen Williams said high rental prices and a lack of housing could leave the Sunshine Coast struggling to retain workers.

“The risk is if these workers – who are the backbone of the economy – cannot find a place to live, the region will miss out on all of the potential public and private sector investment in transport, infrastructure and amenity that comes along with good growth,” Ms Williams said.

She said if done right the Sunshine Coast Council’s new planning scheme could help boost housing supply and diversity.

Sunshine Coast Chamber Alliance chair Wallis Westbrook said the situation had left some businesses scrambling to find homes for employees with some leasing properties for their workers.

Sunshine Coast Property Rentals office manager Jamima Suter said from what she had seen the situation was not as dire as some thought, but that supply and demand contributed to the increase in prices.

“(It’s) really important to keep in mind that over the past 10 years increases in investment properties on the Sunshine Coast have been the lowest in Australia,” she said.

Anyone who may be able to assist these families with their search for a rental home can get in touch with us at [e-mail].