The Queensland premier is hoping next week’s federal budget will give Queensland housing sector the significance it deserves after a summit of industry leaders was told the state is missing 20,000 rental properties.
More than 100 representatives from governments, social services, charities, property and construction groups took part in Thursday’s summit to address what’s been called an affordability crisis.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was looking forward to the federal budget in her closing remarks to an audience, which included federal Housing Minister Julie Collins.
The state has pledged to do an immediate stocktake of land holdings that could be used for housing and flagged a potential funding increase for emergency accommodation.
Palaszczuk said the key term from the summit was “gentle density”, which includes things like duplexes and small-scale apartments.
It’s sometimes referred to as the missing middle for housing options between family homes and high rises.
“The prices of housing and rents are forcing people to move away to outer suburbs, away from their friends and family,” she said.
“How do we do that gentle density to keep families and communities together.”
Southeast Queensland’s regional plan will also be reviewed as a result of the summit.
Treasurer Cameron Dick said about 20,000 homes had been withdrawn from Queensland’s rental market in recent years without a clear explanation.
He told attendees the state should have 55,000 more rental dwellings than it does.
Treasury analysis found much of the shortfall can be attributed to rental properties being bought by owner-occupiers, a slowdown in construction of new homes, or stock taken out after being damaged in recent floods.
However, Mr Dick said the analysis found a shortage of 20,000 rental homes “cannot be explained by available data”.
“What’s happened in the housing market is very unique, very unusual, and has not happened before in Queensland,” he said.
The missing rentals could be explained by people using their investment properties to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic or holding them for sale or for use as holiday homes.
Tenants Queensland CEO Penny Carr told the summit the tight rental market had left people vulnerable to rent rises.
“We had two clients … one had a $170 a week increase, and the other had a $120 a week increase,” she said.
“They were both in the market with the same landlord for five and six years.”
Planning Institute of Australia’s Matt Collins said policymakers should put more focus on the security of tenure rather than solely home ownership.
“(So) they’re not at risk arbitrarily of having that tenancy end and having to relocate … particularly in a market like we have now that can have really significant impacts,” he said.
Meanwhile, Palaszczuk said about 5,600 new social and affordable homes would be built by 2027, on top of the 6,365 promised by 2025.
She said the government would double its Housing Investment Fund to $2 billion (US$1.2 billion), which will create annual returns of $130 million to be invested in dwellings.
“That’s a good portion of the money that’s dedicated for building new homes,” Palaszczuk said.
“This additional investment also recognises the impact that rising cost of building materials and labour is having on prices right across the construction sector to secure much needed additional supply.”
