The factors exacerbating the Rental Crisis

The Sunshine Coast is massively undersupplied for homes, with the demand only growing. We’ve known this was coming for a while now and shared many reports and warnings but now as the numbers of people in this region grow and the limited availability of homes becomes ever more apparent, people are screaming out for places to live and the media is searching for insight and answers to help explain this never-before-seen scenario on the Sunshine Coast.

Just recently WIN News ran a story on the rental crisis and sought insight from the Direct Collective with our Chief Operating Officer Mal Cayley speaking to the news crew.

When we look at supply and demand, there are many factors that have driven up the demand for homes on the Sunshine Coast, and the supply has been impacted by lack of land availability, and red tape and slow approvals for infill developments. (see our articles here)

Not only is the Sunshine Coast a great place to live with a thriving economy for jobs and opportunity, a number of factors off the back of COVID-19 have fast-tracked the already predicted growth of the region. With international migration on hold due to international travel restrictions you may expect the number of people moving here to decline, however we’ve actually had close to 500, 000 Australian’s return home from overseas which is 70% more people than the numbers that were already driving the national undersupply through migration. Additionally, of all the Australians who moved post-COVID, 88% have moved or are predicted to move to Queensland.

With these large volumes of people looking to live in our region and a massive undersupply of housing to take them, it’s no wonder we’re seeing people squeezed out through competition driving prices up. We’re also seeing a lot of home owners move back into their investment properties, taking them off the market to renters. In our rent roll alone we’ve seen a 5% decrease in property availability in the last quarter due to owners moving back in.

Our region seriously needs an immediate solution to house people, we’re talking tents and demountable buildings on paddocks right now. This is because all the other permanent housing solutions are still years off being able to house people, but we have families needing accommodation tonight. Cars and friend’s couches are not permanent solutions but it’s all some people have right now.

Property investors can be part of the solution by providing more rental opportunities to the community. If you are interested in being an investor and helping to resolve the rental crisis please get in touch with our team. Ph 13 31 32.