Push to increase housing supply
FEDERAL and state governments are being urged to back policies that improve the supply of housing for rent as vacancy rates tighten to their lowest level in more than 15 years. In Townsville, Real Estate Institute of Queensland zone chair Ben Kingsberry said the rate – assessed at 0.9 per cent for the March quarter – effectively was at zero.
It was causing stress for people trying to find a home, he said.
“Really, it all comes down to is a very small section of the properties that are available because of high rents or poor condition. I wouldn’t say there’s any natural vacancy in the market. It’s causing some pain, undoubtedly,” Mr Kingsberry said.
The availability of houses or units in towns around the city is also at rock bottom.
The vacancy rates in the Burdekin, Charters Towers and Mount Isa are all at 0.8 per cent, while on the Atherton Tablelands it is 0.4 per cent.
The REIQ said it was not just statewide – although regional areas were profoundly affected – but national, with empty or low rental listings across Australia.
REIQ chief executive Antonia Mercorella said record-low interest rates, government support and stimulus measures and a pandemic-driven stampede from across the border had pushed Greater Brisbane’s vacancy rate to 1.1 per cent – its lowest since 2012.
Mr Kingsberry said Townsville’s were the lowest since 2005-06.
His firm was seeing a huge number of people moving to Townsville to buy and rent and a similar number of interstate people buying for investment.
He said the economy needed more people building tenancies. But for Northern Australia the market, particularly for units, had been restrained by the lack of affordable and available insurance.
“We need the insurance reforms that have been talked about,” Mr Kingsberry said.
Ms Mercorella said the state government should reinstate first homeowner grants for existing homes to help more people transition into home ownership.
She said when it came to new builds, it was important to understand that the cost of new construction had increased 220.3 per cent, while established housing had risen, on average, 113.95 per cent between 1995-2018.
The REIQ said rents in Townsville were starting to rise sharply. It said the median weekly rent for a two-bedroom unit increased 7.1 per cent to $300 over the year to the December quarter and the median weekly rent for a threebedroom house in Townsville jumped 6.1 per cent to $350.