Rentals hit new record
THE screws have been tightened further on people desperate to find a home with the Real Estate Institute of Queensland reporting record low rental vacancies across the state.
Townsville equalled its record low with 0.6 per cent for the March quarter, while the Atherton Tablelands and the Southern Downs were the lowest in the state at a minuscule 0.1 per cent.
Other regional figures include Burdekin 1 per cent, Charters Towers 0.6 per cent, Mount Isa 1.2 per cent, Mackay 0.6 per cent, Whitsunday 0.7 per cent and Cairns 0.5 per cent.
The figures follows warnings by the Queensland Council of Social Services that children increasingly were suffering domestic violence and homelessness amid a housing crisis.
It says 4989 Townsville residents are waiting on the social housing list for an average of 21 months and that 40 per cent are families with children.
QCOSS also said rents had increased 25.8 per cent and 19.6 per cent in Townsville’s south and city regions respectively over the past five years.
REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said the rental squeeze was occurring across Queensland. Ms Mercorella said with investors selling and the dominant purchasers being owner occupiers, more homes that were previously investment properties were effectively being removed from the rental market, shrinking an already scarce base of rental supply.
Also, Queensland had experienced a steep population boost from interstate migration and the February flooding disaster had displaced people from their homes.
“With the second stage of rental reforms looming, the last thing we need right now in the midst of a rental crisis, is legislative reform that undermines investor confidence,” Ms Mercorella said.
James Cook University adjunct professor Colin Dwyer said more than 1240 rental homes had been absorbed or left the rental market in Townsville in the past five years. He said factors influencing the Townsville market included sale of rental stock, job creation giving people more ability to rent, family fragmentation, competition from online short term accommodation and the opening of international borders.
Mr Dwyer said a combination of programs was needed including monitoring regional rental markets, investigating access to vacant properties, mitigating against disasters, improving home insurance costs, increasing taxes on properties sold within one year and restricting foreign ownership of residential property.
He said the market was likely to remain very tight over the next 12 months and that all levels of government and the community needed to be involved in the solutions.