Housing supply lags behind demand in St Helens on Tasmania's east coast

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A coastal Tasmanian municipality has grown significantly in recent years, but demand for housing is outpacing supply. The Break O'Day population is projected to continue ageing and a demographer says housing strategies need to consider the types of homes to build.

Transcript

00:00Emma and her client Hayley have an easy rapport.

00:06They've been spending time together for months,

00:09but the disability support worker was weighing up her future.

00:13I already had the thoughts, well, if I can't find anywhere to rent,

00:16then I would have to leave the area because I can't live in a tent forever.

00:21After a desperate search, Emma and Gypsy have found a rental in Scamander.

00:27It's been, yeah, extremely stressful.

00:29She's one of many newcomers to the Breaker Day area on Tasmania's east coast.

00:34Its population has jumped by nearly 10% in five years,

00:39but housing hasn't kept pace.

00:41You've got, like, ten people looking at one property

00:45and only one of these people are going to get it,

00:47and there's literally nothing else on the market.

00:50In the next 15 to 20 years, more than half of Breaker Day's residents

00:55are projected to be 65 and older,

00:58but it's feared the housing issue means services also won't keep up.

01:03Which will either require them to move elsewhere

01:05or those local government areas will need to attract those people

01:08to provide those services.

01:10Many cashed in investment properties during the pandemic

01:13when prices boomed and buyers moved in.

01:17It's probably affecting our rental stock more than anything

01:20in that our area doesn't have a lot of new building happening here

01:23and a lot of new construction.

01:25So when there's that many people moving to an area,

01:28there's not enough houses to give everyone accommodation.

01:32The issue doesn't just boil down to the amount of housing, but the type.

01:37Here in St Helens, many of the homes are older

01:39and there's a real lack of smaller, modern dwellings,

01:43making people reluctant to downsize.

01:46The mayor says there's only so much councils can do to get shovels in the ground.

01:51All the approvals under the sun doesn't actually build houses.

01:56The economic stimulus which is required by state and federal government

02:01to incentivize developers to build houses is what's really required.

02:07In an effort to speed up builds, state and federal governments have agreed

02:12to pause changes to the National Construction Code.

02:15The Commonwealth has also brought in build-to-rent reforms,

02:18policies that aren't without critics.

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