Housing challenges persist one year on from emergency summit

Hosted on March 15, 2018, the government-led summit recommended nine actions as broad first steps, with the overarching intent of increasing the supply of social and affordable housing, as well as increasing the affordable rental stock. 

Minister for Housing Roger Jaensch said following the summit, government has been working hard to address both short and long-term issues.  

"Progress has been made on all action items, some of which are still ongoing. We will have more to say on these action items as we approach the one-year mark," Mr Jaensch said. 

"Legislation to fast-track the rezoning of surplus government owned land passed the parliament last year. The first sites were in Rokeby, Devonport, and West Moonah. 

"The government will continue to submit further orders when parliament resumes to fast track the supply of affordable homes.

"The Private Rental Incentive Scheme pilot aims to provide individuals, couples, and families  who are finding it tough entering the private rental market with access to secure and affordable private rental accommodation. 

"251 properties have been submitted for assessment, 95 properties have been accepted for the program, 66 have now been leased to applicants from the housing register."

The government has invested $125 million over five years into the next stage of the Affordable Housing Action Plan, due to be released in March. 

Tasmanian Council of Social Service chief executive Kym Goodes said progress has been made towards the nine action areas outlined but ultimately stakeholders are running to a stand still on housing issues in the state. 

"While the number of people in need of housing has intensified and spread in the past couple of years, a lack of safe, affordable housing is not a new issue," Ms Goodes said. 

"To give perspective, to address the current social and affordable housing needs across Tasmania we would need to build a town the size of Ulverstone, 3,149 dwellings as at the 2016 Census."

University of Tasmania Institute for the Study of Social Change director Dr Richard Eccleston said the housing and private rental markets are just as tough as they were 12 months ago because the pressures have not gone away. 

"Addressing the housing challenges is going to be one of the major issues for the state government, not only for the next two or three years until the next state election, but really for governments over the next 10 years," Dr Eccleston said. 

"It's quite likely they will have to increase investment in social and community housing, and affordable housing, and also address the barriers to increasing private investment in new housing in Tasmania." 

"From a political perspective, the government talks about the housing crisis as a statewide issue. It's true that the most acute pressures have been in greater Hobart but the demand and cost of housing is increasing in Launceston.

"What tends to happen as one city becomes very unaffordable is you have people for affordability reasons moving from the expensive capital out to other cities."

Ms Goodes said inclusive strategies can prevent the current crisis from escalating in regional and rural areas. 

"With strong and continued economic growth and increases in stamp duty revenue, we must invest in long-term initiatives to ensure all Tasmanians have a place to call home and a community where they belong," Ms Goodes said. 

"Long-term, effective solutions to Tasmania’s housing issues include increasing participation through education and training, getting local people into local jobs and taking an investment approach to the essential services required in our communities."

READ MORE: Housing future-proofing needed for North, North-West: TasCOSS

Shelter Tasmania chief executive Pattie Chugg said clear trends through 2018 to 2019 show Tasmania is experiencing an ongoing housing crisis. 

"Tasmanian household incomes are on average $300 less per week than the national average, and are outstripped by rental prices," Ms Chugg said. 

"The chronic shortage of affordable housing and high cost of renting forces many low and moderate income households to make impossible choices between essentials, such as food and heating, or keeping their home.

“Every day we hear from our members that in such a competitive and unaffordable rental market more and more people are a risk of homelessness across Tasmania. Many parts of our state are no longer affordable places to live for low income renters."

Dr Eccleston said the housing crisis caught everyone by surprise. 

"For many years the housing supply and demand, both in Hobart and across the state, was pretty stable in terms of steady rates of population grown and steady rates of building," Dr Eccleston said. ​

"In 2016, we had the acceleration in population growth up to over 1 per cent a year, with the state's population increasing by over 5000 in the 12 months to the middle of last year."

Dr Eccleston said the changing drivers of population growth are contributing to the population demand. 

"Now that the Tasmanian economy is growing and people want to move here, our population growth is by migration. A migration led population growth is more housing intensive."

Dr Eccleston said the good news is the the housing shortage in the short term, with the availability of affordable rental housing drying up, has not seemed to have affected population growth and migration. 

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Tasmania continues to lead the nation in the annual growth in residential building approvals. 

"Construction of new homes has actually declined below the long-term average," Dr Eccleston said.  

"If population growth continues as it has in recent years, we've got a shortfall of something like 1000 homes just in the Hobart market, if we wanted to bring the rental market back to normal conditions.

"On top of that we need to be building about 3000 new homes a year to account for population growth. 

"One of the challenges is just the lack of builders and construction workers 

"The market is very cyclical and nobody is blaming builders for, when times were tough, letting workers go and not investing in training, but it seems on the back of the housing shortages and our long-term growth that we should be planning for this ongoing investment in housing and infrastructure." 

READ MORE: Tasmanian housing approvals responding to population growth

Dr Eccleston said one factor leading to the tightening in the housing market is the impact of tourism and rapid growth of short stay accommodation. 

"In Hobart in particular, the fact that we estimate over 500 homes have gone from the long-term residential market into holiday accommodation," he said. 

The Institute for Social Change said short stay accommodation providers, such as Airbnb, have grown 205 per cent state-wide between February and August 2018. 

New legislation regarding the regulation of private homes being used for accommodation, the Short Stay Accommodation Bill 2018, was introduced in parliament last year. 

"The bill serves two important purposes: to ensure everyone is playing by the rules; and to provide a clearer picture of the short stay accommodation sector across Tasmania," Mr Jaensch said. 

READ MORE: Airbnb soaking up visitors from tourism boom

Dr Eccleston said in terms of growth, in Hobart it is still growing at a slower rate, however, in the growth rate of listings in Launceston is growing. 

"Airbnb and short stay accommodation is really important but it changes very rapidly and it does need to be closely monitored, Dr Eccleston said. 

"We certainly don't support blanket bans. In some parts of regional Tasmania, including Launceston, Burnie and Devonport, there probably doesn't need to be any regulation. 

"In Hobart, there should either be an annual charge or perhaps a cap on the total number of Airbnb properties just for the next year or two until we can build more homes in the rental market, until it functions better."

While you're with us, did you know that you can now sign up to receive breaking news updates and daily headlines direct to your inbox? Sign up here.