Build plan criticism as rents keep rising

LABOR says the state government’s plan to build 10,000 homes in 10 years is not enough, as a new report shows the price of renting has continued to rise.

According to the latest CoreLogic Quarterly Rental Review, rents across regional Tasmania grew by 3 per cent over the December quarter.

It compares to a 0.3 per cent growth rate in September.

“While this relatively small market may show more volatility in growth rates, Tasmania has also seen a strong surge in net overseas migration post pandemic travel restrictions, which may be pushing rental demand higher,” the report said.

“The state saw an additional 2745 people arrive from overseas in the year to June 2022, higher than the pre-Covid five-year average of 2325.”

Labor leader Rebecca White said it was increasingly difficult to secure a rental.

“What this data shows us is what many Tasmanians are telling us year after year and that is it’s getting very hard for them to find an affordable rental,” Ms White said.

“Hobart has, in its most affordable suburbs, still some of the highest prices compared to other affordable suburbs in other cities across the country.”

Liberal MP Madeleine Ogilvie said the problem of rising rents was related to a lack of housing supply.

“We know what will help is more supply of housing, so we’ve set up Homes Tasmania that will do that, we’re going to build 10,000 homes,” Ms Ogilvie said.

“Homes Tasmania building housing and facilitating people into those houses as quickly as it can is what we’re focusing on,” she said.

Ms Ogilvie said the government had been in talks with the Migrant Resource Centre to assist migrants struggling to secure housing.

“In my electorate down south, we have a very high migrant community, we’re really keen on getting that talent to Tasmania and keeping people here,” she said.

Ms White criticised the government’s housing solution.

“They’ve got a plan to build 10,000 houses in 10 years, that’s too long,” she said.

“We’ve got 10 blocks of land that have been fast-tracked for housing approval under parliament orders, not a single house has been built on any of them, some of them have been approved for 10 years.”