Gold Coast property shortage: Solution to city’s housing crisis revealed

The state’s peak property body has urged the Gold Coast City Council to make a major change to solve the Glitter Strip’s housing crisis.

The state’s peak property body has urged the Gold Coast City Council to incentivise developers to build homes aimed at first-time buyers.

The Gold Coast has defied the property downturn which has gripped much of southeast Queensland since the end of Covid-era incentives, with building approvals actually increasing year-on-year in 2022-23.

However many of these projects, primarily unit towers, are aimed at wealthy individuals and are lower-density, focused on residential quality rather than quantity.

Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) chief operating officer Dean Milton said the Gold Coast faced a complicated road forward as its population grows.

REIQ chief operating officer Dean Milton

“The Gold Coast will face quite a challenge because people want to live there and be close to the beach but this will also need to be serviced by hospitals and schools,” he said.

“All tiers of government will need to work together on this because the population will never stagnate as greater connectivity to Brisbane occurs.

“The Gold Coast, when you look at building approvals, bucks the trend has actually increased and while the rest of the state went backwards, approvals here went up 20 per cent, though most have been for units.”

Mr Milton said the Gold Coast had a “strong appetite” for development but called for a greater diversity of housing supply.

“There will be a fair degree of high-end housing given the nature of the Gold Coast but we need to make sure the needs of the growing population are met because we are going to see it double by 2046,” he said.

High-rise development, towers and cranes dominate the Main Beach skyline but the REIQ warns there needs to be a greater diversity of development. Picture Glenn Hampson

“Anything which can be done to encourage affordable housing would be great, because more needs to be done in the space of aspiration and first-time home buyers.”

While building approvals remain high, construction of new housing and towers remains stubbornly slow, with developers unable to keep up with the population growth.

Nearly 40,000 units which have been approved for the Gold Coast have been approved in the past decade but not yet started.

The 2023 Gold Coast Dwelling Supply Study, released in July, warned the state government’s updated dwelling supply estimates for the Gold Coast are “questionable”, with existing greenfield sites able to viably deliver 17,564 houses.

This is less than a third of the state’s target of 57,194.

The report, which analyses the state of the city’s development sector, warns the existing Southeast Queensland Regional Plan urban footprint should be dumped – a move which would allow developable land such as Norwell Valley in the northern Gold Coast to be unlocked for housing.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk responded to the report, saying the government was working with councils and the private sector fast-track more development in the city to cope with the boom.