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

7.2.7      Recommended Actions in Relation to Tourist Accommodation
Should growth in the tourist market continue as it has been on average over the last decade,
there would be ongoing demand for visitor and tourist accommodation of all types. Some of this
demand may be filled by increasing existing occupancy rates, some may be filled by secondary
dwellings, especially in the hinterland, some is likely to be filled by retrieving resort units lost to
permanent residents and some may be filled by further use of the residential stock.

The remaining resort site at Settler’s Cove will provide a significant increase in capacity, and it is
important for this reason that it is preserved for this purpose. However overall, the stock which
can be used for either residential or tourist accommodation is finite, and the direction of Tourism
Noosa to increase the yield of the existing industry sits well with that proposition, as continuous
ongoing growth in visitor accommodation throughout the projection period does not appear
sustainable.


     Recommended Actions for Consideration:

       50. The ‘tourist only’ resort site at Settler’s Cove be preserved and protected, as well as those already
           developed.

       51. The limits of tourist accommodation sustainability be recognised and Tourism Noosa be
           encouraged to work within the confines of these limits to grow the tourism industry in Noosa
           Shire, so as to protect an appropriate balance of housing for permanent residents.




7.2.8      Recommended Actions in Relation to Aged Accommodation
The benchmarking process found that while there appears to be a surplus of residential aged care
places for the Sunshine Coast aged care region, there appears to be a shortfall of places in Noosa
Shire. Home care is not able to be benchmarked at a Shire wide geographic scale. However the
number of home care places at the Sunshine Coast aged care planning region level is below the
targets established by the Australian Government and therefore additional services in the local
area may also be beneficial to the local population. Similarly, the number of retirement facilities
may not be adequate into the future, particularly if any of the approved facilities do not
eventuate.

The relatively few retirement village facilities in Noosa Shire (especially in coastal areas), together
with an apparent underprovision of aged care places and home care packages35, and a lack of
smaller, more affordable dwellings and high levels of housing stress, belies the needs of the
current and future aged population of Noosa Shire. The choices are to move away to other areas
of the Sunshine Coast region to access residential services in potentially cheaper accommodation,
to return interstate if that was their origin, or to move into residential aged care prematurely.
Those renting are particularly vulnerable.

Retirement villages and residential care facilities are part (and an important part) of the package
of solutions but also important is the ability for people to age in place within their existing
town/community through improved housing choice and flexibility. In this regard, the secondary




35
     As far as can be ascertained benchmarking at the Shire-wide level




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