PROPERTY REPORT TABLED IN PARLIAMENT AS PART OF HOUSING CRISIS SOLUTION

MEDIA RELEASE

Jun 23, 2022

LOCAL PROPERTY REPORT TABLED IN PARLIAMENT AS PART OF SUNSHINE COAST HOUSING CRISIS SOLUTION

Off the back of running a highly successful event with guest speaker Bernard Salt AM, local property expert Mal Cayley is taking immediate action to address the current accommodation and rental crisis by sharing his latest research report with industry changemakers.

Mr Cayley has already amassed a groundswell of support for his data-driven insights and action-focused recommendations, which continued today when Maroochydore MP Fiona Simpson tabled his latest report in Queensland parliament as part of her budget response.

Ms Simpson named Mal personally when she handed over a copy of Sunshine Coast: The Future 2022.

“We need to have reports like this being driven throughout all regions of Queensland so we don’t continue to see the crisis rolling over and the government propping up saying ‘oh we have a policy’ and they get their thousand-plus strong communication team to put out more releases but failing to address this very real humanitarian problem,” Ms Simpson told parliament.

“One of the biggest fails of this budget is it doesn’t just fail to fix the urgency and the size of the housing crisis, it ignores it.

“Property analysts estimate the shortage of houses required on the Sunshine Coast is about 2000 homes per year – if you simply blame COVID and interstate migration you will be doomed to miss the underlying problems and then fail to provide the right solutions to help address these issues.”

Ms Simpson agreed with Mr Cayley that we need more accurate data to make better decisions around housing.

“If you want to help renters to have greater security in rentals and affordability then fix the barrier to supply new housing stock in the market – that is critical – and it starts with data because what the government releases there is a huge lag and it is out of touch with what’s happening in the market,” she said.

Mr Cayley said the response in parliament today is a great step forward and one of many he is going to push for.

“If the region was hit by an earthquake and thousands were displaced, the community would be out on the streets, crisis funding would be available, and the normal way of responding to the day-to-day would be dramatically changed,” he said.

“This is the ‘response’ thinking we need right now – immediate, all-encompassing, dramatic and pivoting.”

Mr Cayley said he is passionate about driving change in the region by helping people understand the real issue when it comes to the Sunshine Coast housing crisis and providing practical solutions.

“Our event this month was designed as the first step to help inform various parts of our community on the scale and source of our challenges but now the key is taking action,” said Mr Cayley.

“Knowing that a growing number of our community are being forced out onto the streets is absolutely shocking, plus seeing thousands of our working population leave because they can’t afford to live here is undermining our access to basic amenities.

“We have a rental and accommodation crisis and that calls for nothing less than an all of government and all of community crisis response.”

While pointing out the causes to the current crisis, Mr Cayley explained he isn’t trying to antagonise anyone.

Instead, he wants to drive reasonable and sustainable change that can be made and supported by the community, business community, industry and government.

“We have a multi-faceted housing crisis on the Sunshine Coast and the first crisis we must resolve is the rental crisis,” he said.

Mr Cayley is currently developing a crisis response solution, but in the meantime urged we need more medium-density housing in the right areas as part of the long-term solution.

“It’s not about building on our beach fronts or our greenspaces, nobody wants that, but we have to reframe our thinking around development,” he explained.

“It’s not viable for people to say, ‘no more development’ and try to stop more people from coming. It simply won’t work, and in the least, if development is held up it just drives prices further and exacerbates our issue with more people ending up on the street.”

With multiple innovative infrastructure projects completed, in progress and on the way for the Coast, Mr Cayley warns the situation will only worsen for renters and those looking to enter the property market as more people relocate here.

This is why, along with his team and other industry leaders, Mr Cayley is pushing to work with the council and state and is setting up meetings to get plans in motion to develop a solution he believes is incredibly exciting.

“I look forward to sharing the specifics when more detail is set in stone, but it is a very innovative plan that involves bringing forward some proposed infrastructure, repurposing state and council land, making emergency changes to the planning scheme and supporting more mum and dad investors to supply the rental market,” he said.

“To really drive this we need support from our community to say enough is enough.”