HOUSING supply and demand is a key issue of the Housing Strategy just released by the ‘Together We’ll Fix It’ team, headed by Coffs Harbour Mayoral candidate, Rodger Pryce.

There is no better time than now, to get more residential land on to the market, Rodger said.

“Council owns quite a large amount of land in different parcels, some of which would make ideal residential land estates.

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“I also see no reason why, as a Council, the community should not invest in acquiring land from private landowners at a fair market price, engaging private enterprise to produce blocks of land,” said Rodger.

“We know that housing is primarily a State and Federal matter.

“We need to be on our elected representatives’ doorsteps, working as closely as we possibly can.

“Our team is not yet elected, but already I have been engaged in dialogue with our State Member, constantly seeking ways to ease the crisis.

“The Bray St/Argyll St initiative can only be the beginning; we need to keep our government’s focus on this urgent issue.”

“Recently, homelessness is spreading through to other sectors of our community, where quite simply, there are no properties to rent.

Homelessness NSW’s Regional and Rural homelessness online forum in March cited inclusionary zoning as a medium-term action to ease the precarious housing situation, calling individuals to lobby NSW Government and local councils to create a meaningful level of affordable housing.

It’s a simple equation of supply and demand, Rodger told News Of The Area.

“This is a crisis placing those who never imagined not being able to find a place to live, into a world of uncertainty.

“The only solution is more accommodation to ease the supply, lessen the demand.”

Commonwealth Bank chief economist Stephen Halmarick said at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) web conference on Tuesday June 15, “It’s really going to be important to focus on the supply side…to accelerate the construction of new residential property.”

“We’ve done it before in Coffs LGA, we can do it again,” said Rodger.

By Andrea FERRARI