PRESS RELEASE: Predicting future demand for housing key to a home for every Queenslander

For immediate release
Media Statement
Predicting future demand for housing key to a home for every Queenslander

Q Shelter, Queensland’s peak body for solutions to housing need and homelessness commends the Queensland State Government announcement that AHURI will be working to predict future supply and demand for housing in Queensland.

‘Improvements to planning future supply based on a better understanding of demand for all housing is critical to the success of any housing strategy’ says Executive Director Fiona Caniglia.

‘We need a healthy housing system as a basis for ensuring the needs of more vulnerable people are being met’ says Ms Caniglia.

‘Without enough supply to meet demand, more people compete for lower-cost rental properties and prices go up. Some people cannot compete if their incomes are lower, or their employment is insecure’.

‘Q Shelter has been calling for targets across all forms of tenure inclusive of targets for social and affordable housing. This initiative goes a long way towards better understanding current and future needs as a basis for those targets.’

‘The critical importance of targets based on demand and need is that they enable monitoring and evaluation. The human cost of homelessness and housing insecurity is why we must better understand future demand as a basis for ensuring policy, investment and implementation measures are hitting the mark’.

Q Shelter’s latest policy statement ‘Better Together’ includes recommendations to reduce homelessness, increase housing supply and sustain tenancies. Measures are proposed to prevent negative impacts from Brisbane 2032.

‘Queensland’s population is growing, and we have the highest nett inward migration of any State. Brisbane 2032 and various associated infrastructure projects will impact supply and even possibly displace people. We have to improve the health of the whole housing system to ensure Brisbane 2032 doesn’t further entrench housing inequality.’

‘As we prepare for the next Queensland Housing Round Table, it is important to reflect on progress while also pursuing further initiatives to address needs now and into the future. It requires a new level of collaboration, respect, and trust across all sectors to move fast to address current need while we ensure everything we do now leads to a better future’.

ENDS
Media comment
Q Shelter Executive Director, Fiona Caniglia: 0400 1964 92
Q Shelter Manager of Strategic Engagement and Policy, Jackson Hills: 0411 395 842
Q Shelter Communications Team: 3831 5900.