SCA Report

The brave new world; what does this mean for strata?

Recently, Strata Community (Qld) was invited to participate in the Queensland Housing Summit. The landmark Summit, hosted by Queensland Premier, The Hon Annastacia Palaszczuk was held in response to the dire state of housing availability for Queenslanders, of course SCA (Qld) was delighted to share our knowledge of bodies corporate and contribute to the solutions.

Queensland, specifically Brisbane was confirmed earlier this month as having the worst rental market in the country. The price to purchase a home of any sort, in any suburb across the state has also boomed since the pandemic. The rest of the country is experiencing significant struggles too. But we have to ask, why? In a time of very little, if almost negative national population growth, plus a period where construction has boomed, in Queensland we have been left with a deficit of housing supply. It is far too common to see people living in tents and regularly read of hundreds lining up at rental inspections. In Queensland, we have actually seen significant population growth due to migration from other states. Despite this, and with a lot of construction occurring through the pandemic period, egged on by significant government stimulus, we are all wondering how we have ended up in the extreme crisis we’re in now? materials, and tradies. Plus, the costs of materials post COVID and also the impacts of the war in Ukraine have been widely reported. But most interestingly, society has changed too since the pandemic and indeed the impact of those changes have compounded the issue.

It’s worth having a look at some of these briefly before we consider what’s next for strata and how we respond to them as a sector.

First, a retreat from share housing has occurred, given the time spent at home, a desire for more private space was probably inevitable when we analyse the pandemic.

Laura Bos, General Manager, SCA (QLD)

Second, money once spent holidaying, eating out and generally living life has been spent on making the home more spacious, liveable and amenable. When you eat, sleep, work and play in one spot, you want it to be comfortable. Whilst we are now allowed back outside and on holiday, the trend towards remote working has also meant this is not necessarily a flash in the pan.

So how does strata respond as a sector to these trends?

We need to first look at the potential benefits strata can deliver to a broader spectrum of people and help deliver innovative solutions to this crisis.

First, let’s not shy away from the benefits to a suburb of having well built, cleverly designed strata complexes as their backbone. ‘Gentle density’ was a term coined at the Summit to describe this. If you build a strata complex, free of defects, with great shared amenity, people can embrace shared space as their own and feel a sense of connectedness and community. Being closer to services and public transport gives people more time with family and community. While it has never been popular, the daily commute is now considered an unnecessary evil, rather than a necessary one. So as a sector we need to promote development that gives people shared space, amenity, and facilities. Second, we need to talk up our affordability benefits as a sector. Apartments, townhouses, and duplexes are all much cheaper than detached housing. If strata development is done right, facilities and space are available- we can deliver a better product than detached housing, at a lower price. Finally, it is important to note that despite all the benefits of strata housing over detached housing, detached housing still makes up the bulk of new construction. This is wrong and we need to educate the public on why. Detached housing is bad for the environment, detached housing is more expensive, and detached housing is likely to result in car choked cities. We need to be positive about the value strata can deliver. Strata properties are not a necessary evil, they are the best way human beings have come up with thus far to create the very best, most enriching urban environments possible. Well designed and built strata is a positive part of the housing mix. NIMBY sentiment around strata must give way to an honest, fact-based discussion about the positives we can deliver. We need to as a sector embrace the 200-year megatrend of density and urbanisation and tell the story of how only strata can deliver vibrant, sustainable communities in our cities, now and into the future.

The future belongs to strata, we just need to let everybody know.