Peak bodies are calling on the state government to do more to address housing issues, especially for young people, ahead of the release of the May budget.
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Submissions began rolling into Treasury in December as the departments boffins and Treasurer Peter Gutwein started to assemble the state's primary fiscal document.
Shelter Tas executive officer Pattie Chugg said Tasmania’s housing problem was wider than Hobart and regional Tasmania had overtaken regional NSW as the least affordable areas to rent.
She said although additional investment in this year's budget was welcome, the state needed to invest more through the redirection of higher stamp duty revenues from housing purchases, relief from the state's historic housing debt to the federal government, a visitor levy on short-term accommodation, and innovative funding arrangements with non-government bodies for more social housing.
Ms Chugg said there needed to be more ambitious targets set for affordable housing stock and for Tasmania to have up to 10 per cent of dwellings classed as affordable social rental housing.
Property Council of Australia state executive director Brian Wightman said housing issues could be solved by removing some regulatory hurdles to accelerate housing approvals with stricter time frames implemented and a triggering mechanism which would allow TasNetworks and TasWater to act faster on infrastructure needs on new developments.
He said more pressure should be placed on councils to finalise local provisions to be included under the statewide planning scheme to enable more development.
Youth Network of Tasmania chief executive Tania Hunt said the organisation recognised young people in its affordable housing strategy but more needed to be done to fund housing which supported their needs and income levels.
"For people on Youth Allowance, there are no affordable private rental properties in Tasmania and for those on Newstart without children, less than two per cent of properties are affordable," she said.
"Young people are also experiencing increased competition for jobs.
"Part-time and casual work is increasing, leading to challenges in finding full-time employment and the ability to pay market rent."
Ms Hunt said there were no long-term care and supported accommodation options available for homeless Tasmanian children under 16 who did not meet the threshold for a statutory child protection response from Child Safety Services but could not live at home and this needed to be addressed.
