Why investors are crucial for the future of the Sunshine Coast

There are many layers contributing to the current rental crisis across the country (especially on the Sunshine Coast) and one of those elements is the fact that investors are currently selling to predominantly owner-occupiers.

Recently Michael Matusik made some great points that we thought were worth expanding upon. The compilation of data he put together (below) shows investors represent 20 to 30 percent of buyers in the market. Mr. Matusik also mentioned that ‘some 50 percent of homes listed for sale across Australia at present are being sold by investors’.  Regionally this is even further exacerbated, with Mr Matusik saying investors represent 75 percent of people selling, yet investor buyer interest-only sits around 35 percent.

What this means is homes that were once in the rental pool are being sold to owner-occupiers, further exacerbating the rental crisis. The Sunshine Coast is lagging behind state and national averages of the number of rental properties on offer, which is evidenced in the low rental vacancy and the increase in first-time homelessness.

In our latest 2022 Sunshine Coast Property Market Update (link below), we spoke about the importance of investors and the role they play in helping improve the current undersupply. Having a range of rental properties available at different price brackets ensures we keep a diverse economy and have appropriate housing for low and medium-income earners so they don’t move elsewhere.

This is why we have been calling on all levels of government to support investors, particularly through:

• Stable and clear policies to support investment
• Reduce impairments on lending for investors
• Increase foreign investment opportunities
• Provide incentives to investors to add to supply

We often hear people push back on development and investors in the region, but often they don’t understand just how crucial they are to ensure we can maintain our lifestyle. The solution to the housing crisis on the Sunshine Coast will never be resolved by interest rates, height caps on buildings, protesting, or closing our borders to southern states. This is a supply/demand imbalance and we’ve created such an incredible, highly desirable place with long-term opportunity that the demand is highly unlikely to subside. The solution, therefore, is in the strategic planning of increased supply. We need more infill development. We need more investors to support the developments and provide rental properties. We need to house the community in ways that see the streamlined flow of people for work and play. We need nodes of development, we need better mass transit and we need to work together to make it happen.

We need to remember that 100% of people living on the Sunshine Coast are in homes brought to you by developers. Developers are not ‘fat cats getting rich’, they are people who take on a lot of risk to provide an essential part of our community, like our farmers providing food, developers provide housing (or land for houses to be built).

To gain a comprehensive understanding of what is happening in the market and where it is headed, download a copy of THE SUNSHINE COAST; THE FUTURE. IN-DEPTH PROPERTY MARKET UPDATE