Member for Gosford, Liesl Tesch, is calling for more active solutions for the rental crisis on the Central Coast, with new figures revealing rents in the region are among the highest in the state.
“The Central Coast was once considered an affordable area to live relatively close to Sydney,” Tesch said.
She said new data released by Everybody’s Home has revealed that the median local rental price in the region is among the highest in NSW at almost $600 per week.
“The data examined regional rent increases alongside wage growth for lower income workers,” Tesch said.
“The Central Coast performed poorly for affordability with an annual increase of 8.9 per cent over three years, raising the median cost of rent to $594 a week.
“The growing unaffordability of the housing market occurring at the same time as the cost-of-living crisis affecting the nation is placing increased pressure on many in our local community.
Tesch said the data demands solutions that will help those struggling in the community.
“We need proactive initiatives and programs in place to help with the cost of living, and it is increasingly worrying that so many in our community are struggling to make ends meet every week,” she said.
Sean Mackinnon of Mary Mac’s Place at Woy Woy is seeing the struggle first-hand as even entry-level accommodation rents for lodges and caravan parks continue to rise steeply.
“There are systemic issues in the housing system, and people coming to us for temporary housing accommodation are already hard on their luck,” he said.
“It is in such a state of crisis that we are not able to be proactive in providing stable housing solutions.
“The Government funds 28 days of temporary accommodation, though in a rental market like this it is not tenable for someone receiving government assistance to find a place to stay permanently.”
Tesch said rising rents could force essential workers out of the region.
“As seen in other parts of the state, unsustainably high prices for housing will see teachers, nurses, shopping assistants, and aged care workers (move) out of the area,” she said.
“There has been talk about house prices declining which will reduce housing costs.
“Obviously as this is driven by higher interest rates, this is not true for homeowners nor true for renters who will suffer the burden of landlords passing on these higher borrowing costs to them.
“Something needs to be done, and it should have been done yesterday.”
Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast, Adam Crouch, said the NSW Government understands the housing pressures facing regional NSW and is committed to enabling more housing at diverse price points now and into the future.
“We set up the Regional Housing Taskforce to make recommendations about how we can combat housing shortages, provide more choice, bring forward the supply of shovel ready land and speed up the delivery of new homes,” he said.
“Central Coast Council is one of 21 councils eligible to apply for $1.4M in funding through our $30M Regional Housing Fund, to deliver new infrastructure upgrades and public and open space projects that directly support new housing supply.
“This funding opportunity is our immediate response to those recommendations, while we work on a comprehensive whole-of-government response, which will be released in coming months.
“Over the next two years, we’ll be delivering six new re-developments across the Central Coast, (comprising) 86 new homes for people in need.
“This equates to a $43M investment, which will create roughly 200 local jobs.
“Additionally, the consolidated LEP for the Central Coast has recently been finalised which will make preparing and assessing development applications much simpler.”
Crouch said the former Central Coast councillors had put a handbrake on residential development with their failure to approve a consolidated LEP, arguing and delaying the most basic development applications time and time again, and wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars of ratepayers’ money on losing cases in Land and Environment Court.
“Under their watch, the Labor run Council also failed to invest in the necessary water and sewerage infrastructure to ensure growth of residential housing growth,” he said.
OMG its not only the Central Coast in a Rental Crisis. ITs everywhere