The Sunshine Coast Business Council is warning the region needs to “critically demonstrate” it can accommodate the “burgeoning” workforce and keep up with population growth.
Available land waiting to be developed on is has also been labelled a road block, by the business council chair.
It comes after yet another discussion was held focused on regional housing strategies, this time examining the impacts on local economies.
The Sunshine Coast Business Council, in collaboration with Regional Development Australia, hosted a luncheon with local business representatives and industry leaders on September 15.
Topics included a high-level overview of the property and housing sector across Queensland and the Sunshine Coast region.
A panel with Noosa and Sunshine Coast councils also explored housing strategies, planning schemes and the Draft SEQ Regional Plan 2023 update and how these strategies will work together for the benefit of the Sunshine Coast region.
The meeting came after data in August showed a spike in Sunshine Coast residents on the social housing waitlist, which had grown by 30 per cent since 2017.
The data revealed there were 2807 on the waitlist locally in 2022, compared with 2162 in 2017.
Sunshine Coast Business Council Chair Sandy Zubrinich said the process to turn available land into housing needed to be sped up.
“Closing stock, or available land, yet to be turned into actual house lots by developers is criticised as being one of the factors contributing to the housing shortage,” she said.
“The reality is there are a number of reasons why these lots are not released, including a lack of infrastructure such as electricity, sewerage or road networks as well as upfront finance and that means getting these lots to market can take up to 15 years.
“Speeding up the process and getting these lots to market has never been more important.”
Ms Zubrinich said it also was important to address how the lack of housing availability and affordability was impacting regional business and the economy as well as adding to the homelessness issues.
“It was great to see the two regional Council’s coming together to discuss housing strategies, planning schemes and how these strategies will work together for the benefit of the Sunshine Coast region,” Ms Zubrinich said.
“While there was robust discussion, more action needs to be taken in the short term to relieve the pressing housing issues.
“Housing availability and affordability continues to be a growing problem and demands meaningful actions to allow the region to continue a sustainable growth path.”
“The Sunshine Coast is one of Queensland’s fastest growing regions in terms of population growth outpacing the state average and Greater Brisbane.
“People choose to come here to work and live and we need to be able to house them and currently we cannot.”
Referencing the Sunshine Coast Market Report by Urbis, Ms Zubrinich said it was estimated that the region required a minimum of 3500 new houses to be developed each year across all price points to keep pace with population growth alone.
“The lack of housing and diversity of accommodation across all price points is causing major disruption within this region and is a real threat to regional growth,” she said.
“When competing with other regions and cities to attract new talent, it is critical that this region can demonstrate it has the capacity to accommodate a burgeoning permanent and temporary workforce.”
“It is time to ensure everyone has a safe roof over their heads and has access to affordable housing to raise their families.
“To tackle this problem, it’s important to be proactive in ways we haven’t before.”
The meeting also came the day after the legislation for the federal government’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund passed in parliament.
Returns from this fund will help deliver 30,000 new social and affordable rental homes over five years, including in Queensland.
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