With housing and rental stress now unwelcome buzzwords across the Beaches and beyond, Peninsula Living examines the impact on homeowners and renters alike.
Australia’s simmering housing and rental crisis has boiled over on the Beaches, with the area suffering from some of the highest levels of housing stress in the country. As homeowners who paid Pandemic-induced peak prices struggle to contend with rapid-fire rate rises, tenants endure 30 per cent rent spirals, the highest since the Great Depression.
Buyers in North Curl Curl and Manly Vale, which exploded during the Pandemic, have been rocked and are feeling repercussions from taking on mega mortgages via First Home Guarantee five per cent deposits. With Census figures revealing that 19.8 per cent of Greater Sydney homeowners are suffering housing stress – defined as spending 30 per cent of household income on monthly payments – those on the Beaches are contending with some of the highest repayments in the country. Digital Finance Analytics found that locals were paying $3,124 a month, far higher than NSW’s average of $2,167, with those in Freshwater ranked ninth most likely in Sydney to be at risk of defaulting on their mortgage.
“The average property price is so much higher, so people are more exposed simply because they have bigger loans.” Martin North, Digital Finance Analytics
The Beaches also suffers from some of the worst housing affordability in Australia, with prices in certain postcodes soaring by 27.7 per cent in 2021 alone. It is these stratospheric rises, coupled with repeated rate hikes, dense urban concentration and chronic under-building in sought-after areas, that have caused the housing crisis to bite so hard.
Principal at Digital Finance Analytics, Martin North, tells us that first-time buyers who paid over the odds in boom conditions, along with investors struggling to cover two mortgages, are suffering the most. “People over-committed when rates were low, then the cost of living rose and the pressure is now on,” he says. “The average property price is so much higher, so people are more exposed simply because they have bigger loans.”
The area’s booming popularity is one of the key issues, with Northern Beaches Council (NBC) predicting that 23,000 more people will call the area home by 2036. This brings the startling local housing shortage of 8,100 affordable homes sharply into focus, with NBC’s Local Housing Strategy aiming to ‘meet the needs of the future Beaches community by diversifying and boosting housing stock.’ An extra 11,995 homes by 2026 are planned, with 10 per cent assigned to affordable townhouses, terraces and social housing for key workers.
Shared accommodation, dual occupancy and the rezoning of at least one ‘centre investigation area,’ in Manly Vale, Brookvale or Frenchs Forest – to compensate for 980 proposed Ingleside Precinct homes – are also on the list. Council’s Interim Chief Executive Officer, Louise Kerr, confirms ‘ambitious targets for the provision of affordable housing.’ The Federal Government’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund for 30,000 social and affordable properties across the country within five years, is also a step in the right direction. It is underpinned by a push to speed up planning and zoning regulations to allow for more building, and shorter lead times.
Significant rainfall hampered the completion of more than 28,000 dwellings last year, while tight supplies of labour and materials also delayed construction. Throw in scarce availability of well-serviced land close to jobs and transport, and the crisis becomes clear. Sarah Grattan, Manly Ward councillor, tells Peninsula Living that strong anti-development views from locals are also exacerbating the problem. “When there is a proposal for a development that might add to the Beaches’ housing stock, there is often opposition and outrage from neighbours and community members who do not want change.
Louise Kerr confirms council has set ambitious targets for the provision of affordable housing.
“Add this to other supply pressures, such as disincentives to downsize and high levels of immigration, and it is almost impossible to see how our children and grandchildren will be able to afford to live on the Beaches.”
Times are tough for tenants too. Housing advocacy group, Everybody’s Home, found that Beaches rents are rising by 30 per cent – $251 a week, pushing average prices up to $1,082 as landlords pass on rising costs. The flow of workers back into cities post-Pandemic, has also seen Sydney rental growth far outpace regional NSW. Desperate tenants have been forced to fight it out for a dwindling supply of properties, as the vacancy rate sits at a rock bottom 1.3 per cent. Also sapping the supply of available rentals is a 17 per cent drop-off in investor appetite since 2021, with the Property Investors Council’s Investor Sentiment Survey warning that a further 19 per cent plan to sell soon, due to ‘rising interest rates making it harder, or impossible, to afford repayments.’
“It is almost impossible to see how our children and grandchildren will be able to afford to live on the Beaches.” Sarah Grattan, NBC councillor
Sarah Grattan says anti-development views are making the housing problem worse.
Clearly, this ‘fraught, inter-generational’ issue has a way to run, says Manly Councillor Grattan. “This crisis was years in the making and there is no easy fix. It will require wholescale change to the tax and planning system and acceptance of change by local communities. But none of the incentives are there, so the problem remains.”
By Catherine Lewis
