Councils united in push for a plan on housing crisis
TASMANIA’S councils have voted in support of housing action at an annual conference involving representatives of all 29 local government areas.
It was one of two major motions passed at the Local Government Association of Tasmania annual conference in Hobart on Thursday.
LGAT president and West Tamar Mayor Christina Holmdahl
said every council had an issue with lack of housing.
“We’ve got young mums sleeping in cars with their children,” Ms Holmdahl said.
“Each council is impacted differently, certainly in the bigger councils it’s a huge issue for them, in the smaller councils it can be a seasonal thing.”
Councils will rally the state government for housing action.
“We would lobby to secure the development of more affordable housing,” she said.
“There would be specific incentives through the planning scheme to enable that housing to go ahead.”
The second motion passed at the conference would assist home buyers in Tasmania.
“Tasmania is one of the few places in Australia where it isn’t mandatory to declare a 337 in real estate,” Ms Holmdahl said.
“A 337 certificate gives the purchaser all of the information about the property they’re about to buy.
“You may have flown down from the mainland and seen a beautiful house ... you come to Tasmania and buy a property and find out, ‘I can’t do anything to that property because its on landslip A, but I wasn’t told that when I bought the property’.
“Because in Tasmania it’s up to the purchaser to do their due diligence.”
The motion to ensure 337s are presented to potential buyers on the point of inspection already passed the West Tamar council.
“It’s not the first time the West Tamar council has put this motion up, but it’s never been acted upon by the government,” Ms Holmdahl said.
“We’re hoping by having it unanimously passed we will get some action.”
The LGAT annual conference wrapped up on Friday.