Working together key in fixing big headaches

THE housing strain on the Gold Coast is well and truly starting to bite. As more and more people come here, determined to make the Coast their home, the options for putting a roof over your head at a price families can afford is becoming increasingly difficult.

And as reported in the Bulletin today, don’t hold your breath waiting for new options to open up.

While Gold Coast City Council is investigating western suburbs of Gaven North and Highland Park as growth areas, even the prospect of new housing estates in these spots is an expensive exercise, and one that City Hall would have to weigh up very carefully.

So what happens with those of the 15,000 who make the move here every year yet can’t afford to live in the heart of the city?

They move west, north, out to the suburbs and the hinterland where there is still some semblance of affordability left in the market.

And that comes with its own range of issues. Most worrying at the moment is the additional strain it places on the city’s already busy road network.

There are massive upgrades needed to key arterial roads coming in from the hinterland to the business and tourism precincts of the Coast where people have their places of work.

But again these are expensive exercises with no easy solution in sight.

They key here is that these problems are recognised and that our government bodies – local, state and federal – are able to come together to try and find a solution.

Tackling these problems as a united front, having better relations over issues like the Gold Coast City Plan, is the only way to come up with the answers before it is far too late.