Surf Coast’s empty home crisis laid bare

Leaders say “short term rental takeover” is robbing people of housing security with the Surf Coast among the nation’s worst.

Nearly one in three Surf Coast Shire homes were vacant on Census night – almost three times the state and national average.

New Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows 6255, or 32 per cent, of Surf Coast homes stood empty while 13,270 were occupied. Greater Geelong had 12,334 unoccupied homes (10.6 per cent).

Leaders say the high vacancy rate is being exacerbated by a “short term rental takeover” and could rob the nation’s seventh fastest-growing region of critical workers.

It comes as the latest Victorian rental report shows just 2 per cent of homes for lease in the region are affordable.

Give Where You Live chief executive officer Bill Mithen said the trend was reflective of “market failure in the housing market, where affordability is just becoming worse and worse”.

“The market failure seems to be that the market is learning towards those that are able to buy a second house and not occupy it, rather than those who need a primary place of residence,” Mr Mithen said.

He said the problem was being driven by the rise of short term holiday rentals which was making the long term rental market increasingly tight.

Short-term accommodation data analysis company AirDNA estimated about 1806 short term rental properties were listed on sites like Airbnb across the Surf Coast on Wednesday. It listed the current average daily rate at $379.

“It means that what we are seeing, over peak periods, is that hospitality businesses don’t have staff,” Mr Mithen said.

“It means that keys industries – such as education, schools, hospitals and doctors – are also struggling to find staff because they haven’t got anywhere to live.

“(The result is) then communities are not adequately serviced for really critical things and the things that make a community good.”

Nationally, more than one million homes were vacant on Census night (10. 1 per cent) and 298,029 houses across Victoria stood empty (11.1 per cent).

Council for Homeless Persons chief executive Jenny Smith said the state’s rental market had hit crisis point.

“The Surf Coast has too many empty holiday houses and too few affordable and secure homes for locals. The private rental market can’t and won’t fix that, so we need government to step in and provide homes.

G21 chief executive officer Giulia Baggio said the data was further proof the housing market is “completely out of balance”.

“There are empty houses everywhere but fewer properties to rent, and affordable rentals even more scarce,” Ms Baggio said.

“Major reform is needed with state and federal governments working together. Everything should be on the table.

“Both levels of government should review the impacts of negative gearing, stamp duty vs land tax, freeing up state and commonwealth surplus land and streamlining the planning process.”

Simon Kuestenmacher, co-founder of The Demographics Group, said a statewide regional boom disproportionately impacted those on low incomes.

“It becomes a problem for low-income renters because rents go up fast … and that’s when we saw massive increases in homelessness and housing crises,” he said.

Originally published as Surf Coast’s empty home crisis laid bare