Developers cash in on housing stress
Mon 21 May 2007
Grant Reynolds, Journalism
The Housing Industry Association (HIA) has thrown its hat into the ring with solutions to improve housing affordability – but other groups warned the HIA is only concerned about its own hip-pocket.
A Committee for Economic Development for Australia (CDEA) said Queensland should expect rampant growth during the coming 50 years, and the rental stress in Queensland was the “worst in Australia”.
The HIA has called for more land to be made available for developers.
The CDEA report said Queensland would probably have more than 7 million people by 2051, up from just over 4 million today.
It also said over two-thirds of the 2051 population would be clustered on three per cent of the state's land in the south-east corner.
The HIA’s Queensland executive director Warwick Temby said the obvious answer to house the influx of people was to build more houses.
“We think the cornerstone of a long-term sustainable solution to housing affordability problems is an abundant supply of affordable land for new development,” Mr Temby said.
But not all parties agree that opening up more land for development would ease the strain on rental costs in Queensland.
Sustainable Population Australia south-east Queensland branch president Simon Baltais said it was no surprise the HIA wanted more land made available.
“Well it’s really pushing a pro-development barrow. I mean the reports from the Local Government Association of Queensland show developers are deliberately holding back land to artificially inflate prices,” Mr Baltais said.
By June this year, all local governments in the south-east corner have to provide their Local Growth Management Strategy (LGMS) to the State Government, outlining the future direction for growth in the region.
Warwick Temby said the growth strategies overlooked land supply issues.
“We’ve seen Caloundra City’s proposals for its growth management strategy over the next 25 years and we think that’s inadequate.
Noosa councillor June Colley went further, calling for a temporary halt to development.
“It’s time there was a stop to this and for people just to step back. For all people in all levels of government, the financiers, the developers, everybody concerned to step back and say ‘what are we doing here and how are we going to address this problem?’” Cr Colley said.
“We think it’s a very poor response to the pressure that’s being experienced on the coast and if anything will exacerbate the problem rather than make it better,” Mr Temby said.
As a result, he said the HIA has set up a task force to monitor the problem of housing affordability and offer solutions to state and local governments.
Caloundra City Mayor Don Aldous dismissed criticism of the council’s LGMS.
“I think it’s unreasonable and it’s incorrect to say affordability is at risk from a housing land shortage here in Caloundra City.
“Our draft LGMS provides the framework for urban growth that allocates land for residential development in this city well beyond 2026 and towards 2046,” Cr Aldous said.
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