When we say housing is affordable, we mean rent or mortgage repayments make up no more than 30 per cent of household income.
While housing affordability is largely the result of state and federal policies and programs, and the market’s response, Council has a role to play.
It’s our job to ensure there is enough zoned land, enabling development with an eye to choice and diversity. There is, and we are now seeing people take up these different opportunities.
Applications for secondary dwellings – (granny flats or smaller dwellings on the same land as the main dwelling) have risen from 20 per year to 30 then 40 in the last three years. We’ve also had applications for 52 multi-unit developments, each ranging from three to 67 residences, since 2017. Half of these have been lodged or approved in the last two years.
True, units and secondary dwellings won’t solve all our housing issues. But enabling diverse housing means more people can choose a better way to live.
Singles and couples would often prefer to move out of the three and four-bedroom houses that currently make up over 80 per cent of the shire’s housing into smaller dwellings.
Building costs keep rising, which leads to development approvals being left unbuilt. So we’ve been using state government funding to install infrastructure that makes building more attractive.
New roads, sewerage and water at Batehaven and south of Moruya will see well over 1,000 new homes over the next ten years. We’re also exploring longer-term solutions, like the viability of subdividing dual occupancies, and enabling higher-density building in Batemans Bay.
It’s going to take a multi-pronged approach but, for example, after a massive five-year hike in rents of 31.7 per cent, we’ve recently seen a drop of almost eight per cent – one of only five shires bucking the state trend, and by far the biggest decrease. We’re not claiming outcomes like this as our own but we’re optimistic our work is helping.
- This story was first published in Council’s quarterly newsletter for residents, Living in Eurobodalla. A printed edition is delivered to the shire’s 26,000 households.
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