A local real estate agent says pressure continues for the property market with housing data showing the number of building approvals equivalent to the 80s.
The Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) CEO Antonia Mercorella said data suggests housing challenges facing Queenslanders are as serious today as they were before the landmark summit.
“ABS building approval data shows we are approving the same number of homes as we did in the 80s when the population was half of what it is today,” Ms Mercorella said.
In the last year leading up to September, 33,755 new dwellings were approved across the state when the Housing Industry Association had indicated that over 40,000 new dwellings were required annually in the SEQ area alone.
Ms Mecorella said social housing approvals remained static with 430 approved in the past 12 months, to service Queensland’s rapidly growing population.
“Meanwhile, the Housing Investment Fund has not built a single house – the size of the hedge fund is irrelevant if there are no tangible outcomes for Queenslanders doing it tough,” she said.
“The rate of prefabricated housing being delivered has fallen short of the modest target set of 80 a year, with just two built to 30 June.”
Tidbold Real Estate Director Dave Tidbold said the building approval rate was not aligning with the current demand for housing in the Redlands.
“In the last 12 months, the stock level available to sell has not been increasing,” he said.
“This means the demand has been staying very high which puts pressure on the market, particularly with certain properties and price ranges such as under one million dollars.”
On the flip side, Mr Tidbold said that the high demand benefited property owners with property values increasing.
“From a property owner’s point of view, it is easier to sell but it has been difficult for buyers especially when there are no people building new dwellings,” he said.
“When no one is building, we are not taking a portion of those buyers from the market to put them in new homes.”
Tidbold said that everything was working against the building industry, influencing people to switch to the established home property market.
“Construction costs were rising, the cost of labour was rising, and another factor was there has been no available land for builders to build,” he said.
“Since people aren’t building for those reasons, buyers have switched their focus to established homes.”
Mr Tidbold said available and affordable land to build on was needed to help the future real estate market.
“If land is too expensive, people will shift back to established homes as people will realise, they are not getting good value for money,” he said.
“The Woodbury Estate in Victoria Point and Shoreline in Redland Bay are the two estates that have the most amount of land coming in the shortest term.”
Mr Tidbold said he was expecting more properties to come into the market in the next six to 12 months.
“We are getting more people considering building and a lot more people are confident to sell now who have been waiting to see what is happening with interest rates,” he said.
“The stock will then hopefully rise which I think will help people trying to secure a home.”
