FEATURE
Anglesea housing options and affordability remain a challenge By Penny Edmanson
Anglesea’s housing availability has changed with many holiday house owners electing for a permanent sea change and rental owners cashing in on the advantages of the short-term rental. Readers of this publication are mostly in the happy position of enjoying all that Anglesea offers: a place of beauty, rest and rejuvenation where the bush meets the sea.
median of $390. Local real estate agents confirm that demand for rental properties is very high with little change to the total number of houses available for long-term rental. Median house prices have also risen substantially.
For decades Anglesea has offered a relaxed lifestyle, a close-knit community, and the availability of housing both through ownership and rental. Since the early 1880s, when some land was subdivided and the first guest and boarding houses were built to cater for new holidaymakers, Anglesea has grown to become one of Victoria’s premier holiday destinations as well as building a permanent population.
How do we keep Anglesea a place where the elderly can stay, the next generation can remain, workers can live and we continue to thrive as a healthy, vibrant and diverse community? Older single women are among the most impacted by housing affordability nationally and locally. Many in this demographic are being forced to leave Anglesea, a town they love and have built connections with often over many years (see Case Studies C and D).
There has always been some tightening of accommodation options over summer when historically the population swells to over 10,000. But increasingly, residents are being Increasingly, residents forced out of long-term rentals (see are being forced out of Case study A), prospective workers long-term rentals, are failing to find accommodation and potential young buyers are being prospective workers are priced out of the market. failing to find
Identifying this as a growing crisis, the Surf Coast Shire Council recently created a new position of Strategic Initiatives Coordinator, currently held by Alicia Hooper. The Strategic Initiatives role and the Affordable Accommodation Action Plan aim to A widening gap is being seen between accommodation and support the roll out of the state the affluent and the middle class with potential young buyers government’s Big Housing Build even dual income families unable to are being priced out of minimum spend allocation of $20 remain in the town (see Case Study million for social and affordable the market. B). This impacts on the demographics housing in the Surf Coast Shire and of our town and has a roll-on effect, not only on to address the Key Worker Accommodation Crisis, businesses, but also on longstanding facilities such as the declared by Council in May 2021. As Alicia says, ‘Like Surf Club. many municipalities across Victoria and Australia, rental President of the Anglesea Surf Life Saving Club, David report and property price data highlight the crisis which is Marsh says, ‘The Club is by no means isolated from the increasingly impacting moderate income households’. housing challenges facing the local community. Even the Alicia acknowledges that building relationships with Club’s main purpose – lifesaving through beach patrols – communities is essential to ‘ensure place-based needs and is not immune. strengths inform the development of social and affordable ‘The reality is that over the last few years it has become housing’. To this end, Council is working with Lorne more challenging to get the volunteer surf lifesaver Business and Tourism Association and Anglesea’s very numbers needed to maintain patrols, simply because there own ‘Housing Challenge 3230’ working group. is no access to accommodation at an affordable price at the right time.’ Housing Challenge 3230 formed as a consequence of growing concern about the impact of rising house Managing Director of the Great Ocean Road Resort, affordability on the Anglesea community and seeks to Damien Cerantonio endorses this view, saying that the raise awareness and work toward solutions. The group staff shortages are a problem year-round because of the lack of availability of affordable rental. An informal aims to meet regularly and has engaged with the newly survey showed that 70+% of employers and employees in appointed Surf Coast Shire’s Strategic Initiatives Anglesea commute from out of town, with many Coordinator, Business and Tourism Anglesea (BATA) and interested in living here, but unable to afford the current local politicians, and is seeking to learn from others in our rents. region experiencing the same challenges. The group welcomes all participation and can be emailed at At the time of writing, the median weekly rent for Anglesea was $600, significantly higher than the Victorian housingchallenge3230@gmail.com. 4
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