- In short: The City of Burnie has recorded only six new housing approvals in nine months.
- What's next? The council says it is working on measures to improve housing supply and will say more about them when they can.
Just six dwellings have been approved to be built in the north-west Tasmanian city of Burnie in the past nine months, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data.
The figures pale in comparison to the city's closest local government areas (LGAs) with Central Coast, which includes the townships of Ulverstone and Penguin, approving more than 20 times the number of houses in the same time frame.
Waratah-Wynyard, west of Burnie, had 13 times the number of approvals.
The data measures new homes approved to be built, so some currently under construction may have been approved in the previous financial year.
It comes as Tasmanian Senator Tammy Tyrell, a member of the Burnie-based Jacqui Lambie Network, agreed to support the federal government's $10 billion housing fund provided a minimum number of affordable homes were built in the state.
The state's construction industry has expressed surprise and concern at the Burnie figures, especially as the city has traditionally been the economic centre of the north-west coast.
"It does raise a few eyebrows when you look at the stats," Housing Industry Association's director of programs Jacob Sertori told ABC Northern Tasmania.
"Clearly, people are looking to move to Burnie so there has to be a deeper issue there."
Mr Sertori said he did not want to "throw Burnie specifically under the bus" and that a number of the north-west councils could be doing better.
"I know, anecdotally, there are a number of our members, builders, surveyors, who don't want to take on work in certain areas because there are just too many roadblocks for silly reasons," he said.
"Especially in the north-west, where there are many little towns you can operate in quite easily, if it's much easier to build in Ulverstone, you'll probably go there instead," he said.
Sounding the housing supply alarm
Master Builders Association Tasmania chief executive Matthew Pollock said while the Burnie statistics were abnormal it was an understandable consequence of higher-than-normal building approvals during the pandemic.
"That was supported by state and federal government stimulus and some of that intentionally borrowed some demand for housing construction from the future," Mr Pollock said.
"So we always expected there'd be some moderation. But that being said, it's important we keep the momentum in regional housing construction going.
"We have a housing shortage in Tasmania, and if we don't keep pace with the demand for housing we risk those shortages getting worse," he said.
Burnie's rental vacancy rate in April 2023 was just 0.8 per cent.
Course correction, says council
City of Burnie general manager Simon Overland said dwelling approvals had been significantly higher than long-term averages over the past few years.
"We are seeing planning and building approvals returning to long-term averages, which is to be expected," he said.
Mr Overland also noted the majority of new homes were notifiable building works that were approved by private building surveyors and were not reported to the ABS.
"Burnie City Council is aware housing supply is a critical issue in our municipality and is working to assist to address the situation, and we will say more about those measures when able to do so," he said.
"We have very low rates of refusal in the first instance and also very low successful appeal rates [by developers]."
Mayor Teeny Brumby said she was frustrated by some of the reporting on the statistics.
"As if Burnie has only had six new dwellings in the past financial year!" she said.
"Anyone can drive around the city and see for themselves that is manifestly not true."
