Queensland’s most hotly contested rental markets have been revealed, with thousands of desperate tenants competing for each listing.

And one expert believes the latest round of Covid-19 lockdowns could make the situation even worse.

New data from REA Group shows the crisis is being felt most acutely on the Gold Coast, where eight of the top 10 most sought-after suburbs are located.

Top of the list is Palm Beach, where the average views per listing is an eye-watering 5799.

But competition for rentals in the Gold Coast region overall has seen the tourist mecca record an average of 3383 views per listing, according to the data.

Hot on its heels is the Sunshine Coast region, where the number of views per listing has hit 3281.

But it doesn’t get much better away from the populated southeast corner, with almost every region and town recording record low vacancy rates.

Up north, the average views per listing in the Cairns region is 1663. For Townsville, it is 1546.

In the Mackay-Isaac-Whitsunday region, each listing is attracting an average of 933 views, while in Central Queensland it is 953.

The battle for a vacant property is also being felt in Toowoomba (1925), the Darling Downs-Maranoa (1021) and Outback Queensland (612).

Across the state, agents and real estate experts are warning of a rental crisis, with investors cashing out and owner-occupiers moving in, removing properties from the leasing pool.

A lack of new dwelling construction over the past decade and a choke point in new land releases is also exacerbating the problem.

Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS) CEO Aimee McVeigh said the state was already in the midst of a housing crisis, with Central Queensland, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast among the worst affected areas.

“Rental vacancy rates, especially in regional parts of the state, are at their lowest ever levels,” Ms McVeigh said.

“This is moving low-income households into housing stress and, unfortunately, homelessness.

“Working families are waking up in tents, sending their children to school and going to work before having to return back to a tent.

“We know that some of our members are having to house domestic and family violence victim-survivors in emergency shelters and hotel rooms for up to 18 months because there’s no affordable alternative.

“This is not acceptable. And it’s not sustainable.”

Ms McVeigh said there were currently 47,036 people waiting for social housing in Queensland, and while the announcement that the state government would triple the number of social housing dwellings built each year was a “good start”, more needed to be done now.

REIQ Far North Queensland zone chair Tom Quaid said the rental market in Cairns was also “approaching a crisis point”.

“The only real solution is the introduction of new supply, and that’s going to take government support to both encourage a more orderly release of land and provide incentives for people to invest in residential property, particularly when catering for the lower end of the market which has been priced out of the majority of homes,” he said.

The rental vacancy rate in the Cairns region in May was just 0.2 per cent, according to SQM Research.

It is a similar story in Townsville, where REIQ zone chair Ben Kingsberry said the vacancy rate was “functionally at zero per cent capacity”.

“We are certainly experiencing a rental crisis in terms of available supply, however to be honest we see the market continuing to rise as the only way through the crisis,” he said.

“Short of government stepping in to build large scale housing, which is unlikely, we are relying on private development to see this gap filled, and our market is not yet at the level where large scale development is economically feasible.”

Keyes & Co Townsville principal Damien Keyes said that the tight rental market was forcing tenants to buy.

“The main reason they are citing is not wealth creation as it used to be (but) simply to create some certainty around their living situation as many fear if a landlord wants their property back they will have a difficult time securing a quality rental property,” he said.

On the Sunshine Coast, which is attracting cashed-up buyers and renters from interstate, the rental vacancy rate was just 0.5 per cent in May, according to SQM Research.

“Our major concern for the region at present is around the rental crisis affecting some of the most vulnerable in our region with no letup in the immediate future,” REIQ Sunshine Coast zone chair Matt Diesel said.

SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said the latest round of Covid-19 lockdowns across Australia could pile even more pressure on regional markets.

“100 per cent, yes. It is only going to make more people want to move away from the bigger cities,” he said.

“There is definitely more renters than available properties and for some, they have crunched the numbers – it is cheaper to buy than rent in most places in Queensland.

“We are hearing the number of occupiers per property is increasing, and that the no vacancy signs are going up at some caravan parks.

“It will be tough, at least for the next year or so.”

UDIA Queensland CEO Kirsty Chessher-Brown, UDIA Queensland CEO said the rental crisis had been building for years.

“The land supply crisis and its knock-on consequences for rental availability are issues that have been building for some time,” she said.

“Unfortunately we are playing a game of catch up so industry and all levels of government need to work together to get Queenslanders into the homes they so obviously want.

Source: https://www.realestate.com.au/news