Coastal growth in Queensland sees house prices soar, town planning issues mount

An influx of people wanting to move to Queensland coastal regions is driving house prices to record highs and causing town planning headaches for local councils.

In the once-sleepy seaside community of Yeppoon on the Capricorn Coast, the population is continuing to thrive post COVID-19. 

Yeppoon is forecast to increase from about 40,000 residents in 2021 to 63,000 by 2046, which is above the state average, according to Queensland government population projections.

Pattie and Harry Catzikiris moved from New South Wales this month and bought their home without physically inspecting the property.

"Any that we did like were sold, under contract or under offer," Ms Catzikiris said.

The retired couple had been househunting for 12 months before buying a three-bedroom, two-bathroom property close to town for $810,000.

"[Tweed Heads] is very busy. Coming up here, it's so much quieter," Mr Catzikiris said.

"We moved for family reasons, mainly to be close to our little granddaughter and our son and his wife."

Rare planning powers

Yeppoon's annual median house price has risen 12 per cent to $680,000 according to the Real Estate Institute of Queensland's most recent quarterly data from March.

Livingstone Shire Mayor Adam Belot described the demand for housing as "unprecedented" and the catalyst for the council to urgently override its outdated planning scheme to rezone land from rural to residential.

"It's beyond what I've ever seen in 30 years," Cr Belot said.

"Buying a block of land on average is a bit over $300,000, and by the time you put a house on that you're upwards of up to $900,000, so that's a real challenge."

With permission from the state government, the council adopted rare planning powers to rezone key rural land to residential in a bid to unlock space for thousands of new homes over the next decade.

Planning teams under pressure

Local government planning teams are struggling to keep up with a surge in development applications.

Cr Belot said attracting skilled workers was a constant battle.

"Over the past two to three years, that's put enormous strain on our planning department, in fact, on our entire executive leadership team from planning through to engineering," he said.

"It's one thing to say, 'Hey, come to the Capricorn Coast, it's a great place to live', but if you don't have a home to move into, then you're not going to attract those professionals."

At neighbouring Rockhampton Regional Council, there has been a temporary pause on accepting building applications between May and July, although people can still engage a private certifier if they want to proceed.

A spokesperson said "resourcing constraints" was the cause for the freeze.

'Significant' court appeals

Further south, in the popular coastal towns of Agnes Water and Seventeen-Seventy, there are calls for the local council to cut red tape and approve more housing developments.

Private town planner Stephen Enders, who leads the recently formed Gladstone Agnes Water Development Group, said he was concerned about the number of appeals lodged against the Gladstone Regional Council in the Planning and Environment Court.

"At the last count it's in the order of about 19 [appeals] in the past three years, which is quite significant in my view," Mr Enders said.

"I think that's a representation of the difficulty in getting approvals through council, and developers are choosing to go to court."

Mr Enders said the council could be too reactive at times.

"Part of the reason for this group being set up is to actually have a voice for the industry in response to some of those other community groups, particularly in the Agnes area that oppose development down there."

Gladstone Regional Council has been contacted for comment.

The Queensland government has opened public consultation on a single statewide housing code to standardise planning rules for local governments.