Cloncurry Shire Council builds its own rentals to address housing crisis

An outback town with zero rentals has committed to a bold experiment, constructing nine new houses and renting them out. The first have already been snapped up on 10-year leases.

Cloncurry Shire Council has built nine brand-new houses to address a housing crisis in town, and four have already been snapped up on 10-year leases.

Cloncurry Shire Council are already seeing returns on their bold experiment to address the housing crisis.

Mayor Greg Campbell said demand for quality housing has been extreme in his region, which is why council committed to building nine new houses with ratepayer funds and $5 million in Commonwealth grant money.

“Talking to one real estate agent last week, she had zero rentals on the books but numerous inquires for a place to rent everyday,” Cr Campbell said.

“We’re trying to commit mining companies to having more workers living here locally rather than FIFO, and one of the biggest reasons why they couldn’t do that was a lack of quality housing.”

In 2021, Cloncurry Shire Council made the bold decision to lead from the front, and committed to funding the construction of eight brand new four-bedroom homes and one three-bedroom home.

Cloncurry Shire Council has built nine brand-new houses to address a housing crisis in town, and four have already been snapped up on 10-year leases.

All up, the project has costed nearly $8 million.

Those nine buildings, all on a brand new cul-de-sac subdivided off Perkins Street, are nearing lockup stage and are on track to be finalised in June.

“Ideally we would want private companies building their own homes, but council has taken this step to shown it can be done and with local builders,” Cr Campbell said.

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“Four have been leased to Ernest Henry Mining already, and we’re negotiating with another mining company for another four, plus we’ve got the CEO of the North West Hospital and Health Service coming to look through the remaining site, but there are no guarantees with that.”

Cloncurry Shire Council has built nine brand-new houses to address a housing crisis in town, and four have already been snapped up on 10-year leases.

Ernest Henry Mining runs a copper-gold operation 38km outside Cloncurry, and signed 10-year-leases on four of the new houses.

“We’re really delighted with how Ernest Henry Mining has come on board wholeheartedly,” Cr Campbell said.

“We’re already working on the next stage of open land and I dare say the demand is there.”

Cr Campbell said the council specifically built with young families in mind.

“Young families are the best demographic to benefit from how our town operates, we’re also working on doubling our childcare capacity so both parents can work if they want.”

In addition to the nine houses, Cloncurry Shire Council’s new housing plan includes a new residential subdivision and the leasing of land in Dajarra for the construction of accommodation for JCU nursing students.

Originally published as Cloncurry Shire Council builds its own rentals to address housing crisis