Sunshine Coast Needs New Suburb Every Year to Meet Demand

The Sunshine Coast needs one new suburb every year for the next 20 years to keep up with its surging population growth.

A Directive Collective property market update for the booming Sunshine Coast claimed that the region has outperformed Brisbane and the Gold Coast during the past three years.

Directive Collective chief operating officer Mal Cayley said the seachange phenomenon was not a Covid-19 “sugar hit” but the start of a “protracted property upswing”.

“The housing demand on the Sunshine Coast is so great, not only does it need to see another land development equal to Aura in size as a minimum, it needs almost three Auras vertically, during the next 20 years to keep up,” Cayley said.

“This is just one of the reasons what is occurring on the Sunshine Coast isn’t a boom, it’s the beginning of a protracted property upswing.”

Cayley said the coast was evolving with unprecedented population growth, job creation, infrastructure investment and “favourable lending conditions”.

“People will come, they are coming, and we need a solid plan for managing that demand in a way that protects the culture and lifestyle of this region,” he said.

“[We need] robust discussion around better managing the balance of supply and demand of housing.

“We can’t afford any kind of extremism in this debate—over-development is just as unhealthy as the view of stopping all development.”

According to the Regional Australia Institute, the Sunshine Coast was predicted to be one of Australia’s fastest growing cities to 2030.

Current forecasts suggest the region would be home to 580,000 people in 2041.

The report suggests that there is already an undersupply of 6500 dwellings, which would grow to 8500 dwellings required in 2026.

Directive Collective’s Mal Cayley said the shrinking greenfield opportunities meant the Sunshine Coast needed to focus on infill redevelopment opportunities into the future.

The report also identified four “game-changing” projects that were reshaping the Sunshine Coast and developing local job opportunities and thriving economies.

They were the Sunshine Coast Health Precinct, the Maroochydore CBD, the Sunshine Coast Airport, and the International Broadband Cable.

AVID Property Group Queensland general manager Bruce Harper said limited land supply would drive prices up in growth corridors during the next few years.

“While some growth suburbs may have adequate supply, others have very limited supply,” he said.

“Accelerated demand is soaking up all the supply that was in the system, and there is a huge need for the government and councils to unlock more large parcels of land through appropriate zoning and site amalgamation.

“The last year’s record growth in demand for new homes has further exacerbated the supply shortage especially in some of the more popular growth corridors such as the Gold and Sunshine coasts.

“We’re in for a strong ride for the next couple of years—land prices, particularly in those supply constrained growth corridors, will skyrocket.”