2017-04-11 P&E Agenda Attachment 1 to Item 1 Housing Needs Assessment

Planning Scheme Barriers
It was considered difficult to innovate with dwelling type in Noosa Shire. However service
providers were unable to provide specific detail. It is also considered difficult to grow the supply
of community housing because of land cost, the size and configuration of lots, and density
restrictions.

Other Comments or Suggestions for Council from the Consultation
There are seen to be opportunities which have arisen from NRAS, although further funding of the
scheme by the Australian Government is presently unlikely. Service providers feel that developers
are now more willing to explore opportunities to participate in projects which provide a
proportion of community housing properties to headlease. Given the lack of State and Federal
policy in the area, facilitating the private market to capture the opportunities is considered
important.

While incentives could be considered, the issue that a community housing project would revert to
the open market once the headlease period was completed appeared problematic, as does the
need for Council to fill the infrastructure charges gap should a reduction in charges be provided
for this type of development. It was considered that incentives may be more applicable on an
individual site basis rather than as a broadbrush zoning approach. Councils can sell off land to
developers and put conditions on it that require the provision of a proportion of social housing.
Council could give planning incentives for smaller housing in suitable areas. Outer areas like
Pomona would be fine as long as they have transport.

Available beds for low-cost accommodation are being taken away by people renting rooms on
AirBnB. There is considered to be a possibility of a housing provider becoming the honest broker
to rent out a bedroom to low income tenants in similar fashion to AirBnB.

5.2.2    Visitor Accommodation
Competition for Visitor Accommodation
Permanent residents living in resorts constitutes a widespread problem for the tourism industry.
The issues are deemed to be twofold:

       Loss of units from the letting pool and the erosion of management rights and income
        which have been bought by the managers. This particularly affects small blocks where for
        instance the removal of three units constitutes the loss of a quarter of annual income and
        a higher than proportionate loss of capital worth. It can mean loss of control of the units
        and downgrading of the resort itself.

       Depletion of available tourist accommodation across Noosa. One owner considered that
        in 5 to 10 years there would not be enough tourist accommodation in Noosa if the trend
        was allowed to continue. This was seen to potentially have far-reaching effects across all
        sectors such as suppliers, tour operators, restaurants etc and could significantly alter the
        most important industry in Noosa Shire.

Resort owners appear to believe that the solution is to manage the problem and to work to
increase returns through holiday letting. Rezoning other resorts for tourism only, was not




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