TSBE CEO warns of ‘bigger issues’ with rental market workers prepare to enter region for Inland Rail project

The influx of Inland Rail workers is expected to have a big impact on Toowoomba’s tight rental market, according to the CEO of TSBE.

TSBE CEO Ali Davenport.

The head of Toowoomba’s top economic lobby group has serious concerns for the city’s already tight rental market ahead of the influx of up to 2000 Inland Rail workers.

Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise CEO Ali Davenport was weighing up the opportunities and challenges of the Inland Rail at the launch of the council’s new prospectus document for the city centre and Railway Parklands precinct.

Ms Davenport said about $5 billion was expected to be spent on the project in the Toowoomba region alone, mainly to do with the work required to tunnel through the Toowoomba range.

She said the thousands of workers that would move to Toowoomba for the Inland Rail would likely place serious pressure on the airtight rental market.

Most property analysts have the Garden City’s rental vacancy rate at less than one per cent, with some putting it as low as 0.2 per cent.

“We have an issue at the moment with our rental vacancies, so we do need to do something quickly as a region to find them homes,” Ms Davenport said.

“People are going to want to rent first and then they’re going to want to buy.

“We know we’ve got an issue now, we’re going to have a bigger issue in 18 months’ time.”

But Ms Davenport said the challenge should be seen as an opportunity for more residential development.

“We see that as an opportunity, we need our council and developers all working closely together to build more homes,” she said.

While the bulk of the work on the Inland Rail is expected to take four to five years to complete, Ms Davenport said its impacts would be more long-lasting.

“The transport and logistics created out of the construction means that Toowoomba is going to grow exponentially anyway,” she said.

“It’s not going to be a flash in the pan.”