Gold Coast housing crisis: ‘Vacancy tax’ pitched as solution to city’s accommodation shortage
A crackdown on Airbnbs operating on the Gold Coast has been proposed in a bid to relieve the growing pressure on the city’s housing market.
Property
Don't miss out on the headlines from Property. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A vacancy tax has been pitched as the key to solving the Gold Coast’s accommodation crisis as experts warn there are years of pain ahead.
The city’s median house price is now equal with Melbourne and construction of new housing and unit towers is not keeping pace with Gold Coast’s population growth.
Mayor Tom Tate, speaking at a Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) roundtable on the city’s housing shortage, proposed a range of solutions, including taxing Airbnb owners and issuing extra levies on investors who own homes but leave them empty sitting and unrented.
He also called on the owners of Jewel to rent out the entirely empty third tower of the $1bn Surfers Paradise beachfront complex.
“We need to work harder, get more stock on the table and keep the price down,” he said.
“Jewel, it’s a whole building which is empty and that should be made available for accommodation for Australians and there are a lot of houses which are dormant or empty so why not rent them out while their owners are overseas?
“A vacancy tax – knock on the door, nobody is using the water or electricity and you don’t want to rent it out? Here, pay us some money so we can just that for incentives to reach other housing requirements.”
New data released in March revealed Gold Coast renters had copped the highest increases in the state over the previous year.
Surfers Paradise was the worst-affected, with tenants there paying an average of $1475 a week while Paradise Point residents spent $1275 a week, a jump of 50 per cent on 2022. The city’s rental vacancy levels fell to a historic low of 0.9 per cent.
Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said the Gold Coast’s market was in “recovery mode” with house prices again rising but warned it would be years before the development sector could catch up with the population growth.
“The Gold Coast needs more housing and we do have a construction crisis and building approvals are also falling,” she said.
REIA President Hayden Groves said there needed to be more affordable accommodation for people who live and work on the Gold Coast but warned a vacancy tax would not necessarily solve the city’s issues.
“It’s already in operation in some areas of Victoria,” Mr Groves said.
“Whenever you put punitive measures around property, like we are seeing with residential tenancy laws it tips the scales too far in balance for tenants and away from property owners and sees them no longer investing in the same numbers.”
REIA Queensland spokesman and leading Gold Coast real estate agent Andrew Bell said he was concerned about any attempt to tax Airbnb owners.
“We need Airbnb because it provides accommodation for people coming here and tourism is so important to us but we also have this large pool of people who need permanent accommodation,” he said.
“We need to find a balance in this situation.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Gold Coast housing crisis: ‘Vacancy tax’ pitched as solution to city’s accommodation shortage
Dad drops huge sum on home for kids after auction truth bomb
A Melbourne father arrived at an auction expecting to put in a bid or two for an old stables his kids could move into. But everything changed when the auctioneer revealed its true history.
Local farming family sells historic Victorian homestead
A slice of Victorian pastoral history has changed hands for the second time in four years after it was sold in a seven-figure deal.