No simple answer to state’s housing crisis, says Treasurer
Treasurer Cameron Dick says there’s no simple solution to the housing crisis for families who have been unable to find shelter, as it’s revealed just how many tens of thousands of people are on the social housing list.
QLD News
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Treasurer Cameron Dick has admitted “there’s no simple answer” to Queensland’s housing crisis as he was asked whether the Palaszczuk Government would have solutions in this month’s state budget for the hundreds of families who cannot find shelter.
Mr Dick said last year’s budget had already contained the “single greatest concentration of funding for housing in recent memory” following Queensland Council of Social Services highlighting there were more than 50,000 people on the social housing list and the Real Estate Institute of Queensland worrying wafer-thin vacancy rates could reduce even further.
Mr Dick said the government had pledged a $1.9bn investment for social and affordable housing as he acknowledged problems with housing supply had been “an unanticipated challenge” out of Covid.
“We’ve seen the change in the formation of households in Queensland,” he said on Monday morning.
“We’re seeing more people buying homes to live in them permanently and less people purchasing homes for the purpose of investment.
“So we’re doing our bit, we’re gonna continue to do our bit as well as looking at our growth areas in Queensland and the Deputy Premier is leading that work as the Planning Minister to ensure we can release more land for housing across Queensland and they’ve made good progress, particularly in projects like Caboolture West.”
He said the state would “continue to deliver” but flagged the rising cost of construction and under-pressure supply chains as issues.
“But there’s no simple answer to the housing challenge in Queensland,” Mr Dick said.
“There’s multiple levers that will be pulled.”
He said councils also had a role to play in the release of land and planning approvals and the state would be working with the new Albanese government on the future of the National Rental Affordability Scheme.
Originally published as No simple answer to state’s housing crisis, says Treasurer
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