Jobs demand set to spark housing shortage in four Australian regional areas

Paradise could become the hot bed of the national housing shortage, new research shows.

Looking at declining unemployment hand-in-hand with rising rental prices, Ray White drilled down to four areas in Australia where the worst housing shortages are likely to take root.

They are the breathtaking beachside locations of the Whitsundays in Queensland, the Port Macquarie-Hastings region in New South Wales and Exmouth in Western Australia, and Victoria’s Moira Shire.

Australia’s national unemployment rate has risen for the first time in 10 months to 3.5 per cent in August. New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that in August, an estimated 33,500 jobs were added to the economy.

Ray White senior economist Nerida Conisbee said demand for jobs in regional areas, post-pandemic, have joined forces with a lack of houses for those workers.

To settle on the list, Ray White crunched the numbers on places where the unemployment rate has declined the most in the last 12 months, and where rental price growth over the same period has increased by more than 10 per cent (which indicated existing pressure and less properties available than the demand).

“For the first time ever, there are now almost as many advertised vacant jobs as there are unemployed people and the unemployment rate continues to trend downwards,” Ms Conisbee wrote in her weekly economic report.

“While finding people to fill jobs is problematic right now, the increase to the permanent migration cap to 195,000 people will assist.

“For many parts of regional Australia, however, the increase in employment demand is also coming at a time where there are housing shortages.

“As a result, employers are increasingly having to offer accommodation to attract staff.”

Ms Conisbee said the Whitsundays, where the unemployment rate has halved over the past 12 months to sit at 2.8 per cent, is experiencing a squeeze on its housing driven by the tourism and mining industries.

“This growth in employment is leading to a significant increase in rental levels with weekly advertised rents having increased by 12.5 per cent in one year,” Conisbee said.

“Bowen, the service centre for the growing coal export has seen not only an even bigger reduction in its unemployment rate compared to the region, but also stronger rental growth. Popular tourist destination Airlie Beach has experienced the same, however, rental growth is even stronger.”

The Port Macquarie and Hastings area, where weekly rental prices in waterside spots including Lake Cathie and North Haven have shot up by 20 per cent, has more of a “mix” of economic factors, Ms Conisbee found.

The movement of new residents, from Sydney, has provided impetus for more schools and hospitals, and that boom in construction has created jobs in the region.

As such, unemployment has slipped from 6.2 per cent to 2.7 per cent over 12 months.

Moira, in north-east Victoria, is an agricultural centre, which Ms Conisbee said is likely to have been an influencing factor. Rental asking prices have gone up by 13 per cent, concentrated on the town of Nathalia.

Exmouth, in WA, is likely riding the back of “mining-driven wealth” zeroing in on holiday homes, and bumper tourism, the research suggested.