Rental shortage impacting skilled workers
Douglas Jobs
A chronic shortage of affordable rental properties in Douglas Shire is increasingly hampering the ability to lure and retain skilled workers to the region.
A Douglas Shire Council study released at the end of last financial year showed factors such as about 60 per cent of potential rental homes being used for short-term housing such as Airbnbs, rising rents, and a lack of housing stock, were contributing to ongoing issues with attracting employees such as doctors, nurses, childcare workers, chefs and tradies.
And, since that report was tabled last July, new figures show rental stocks have become even scarcer and rental prices are at all-time highs.
The median house rental price in Port Douglas for the year up to March was $750 per week, up from $525 for the same period in 2020.
And the median unit price in Port Douglas for the year up to March was $550 per week, up from $350 in 2020.
There were less than 10 houses available for rent in the town in the past month, while there were more than 140 people looking for a home to rent, and there were 46 units available to rent, but more than 320 people were looking.
In Mossman, the median house rental price for the same period was $525, up from $350 in 2020, while the median unit rental price was $350, up from $260.
But there were only two houses put up for rent last month in that town, with 21 renters interested, and no units were on offer there for the whole month.
In other parts of the Shire, the data is generally too unreliable to get a clear picture due to the low number of rentals on the market.
Peak body the National Association of Renters’ Organisations released a statement earlier this year about the ongoing national rental crisis.
“The worsening crisis in rental housing demands immediate attention, and comprehensive reform across our rental housing systems,” the statement reads.
“Reforms are urgently needed to stabilise rent prices.”
And housing price data organisation Core Logic's head of research Tim Lawless said rental unaffordability across the country was at "record highs".
"Renters are dedicating roughly about a third of their incomes, their gross annual incomes, to paying their rent,” Mr Lawless said.
In Douglas Shire, that figure is on point, according to the council’s 2024 Local Housing Action Plan report.
In the 2021 Census, 36 per cent of the 1409 rental households in Douglas Shire were paying more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, with that number on the increase.
“There has been a significant shift in the housing landscape since 2021, with increases in rental prices typically outpacing wage growth, meaning that the true rate of housing stress may be higher than what was reported in the 2021 Census,” the report states.
The study points out there was a “significant number of unoccupied dwellings” in 2021 of 15.4 per cent, which were “presumably utilised as short-term accommodation”.
“With the recent surge in vacation rentals, especially through platforms such as Airbnb, the true availability of small dwellings for permanent residential use may be lower than what was reported in the 2021 Census,” the report states.
The council said at the time it would be monitoring the “issue of short-term accommodation impacting the supply of dwellings available in the long-term rental market” and would be keeping an eye on what was happening in other comparable tourism-based regions.
“Actions undertaken by Local Governments in similar tourist locations to address the impacts of short-term accommodation on housing supply will also be monitored and assessed,” the report states.
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