New data has revealed the astonishing depth of Tasmania's worsening housing crisis as Housing Minister Michael Ferguson continues to focus on his own political future instead of putting roofs over the heads of Tasmanians in desperate need.
Coinciding reports released by Domain and CoreLogic this week show Hobart has a rental vacancy rate more than three times worse than the national average at the same time rental prices soar to unprecedented levels.
In the March 2022 quarter, Hobart recorded a rental vacancy rate of just 0.3 per cent and that's an appalling state of affairs for the thousands of Tasmanians finding it near impossible to secure housing.
At the same time the CoreLogic Quarterly Rental Review shows Hobart rents rose nine per cent over the past year, 2.4 per cent in the March quarter and 1.1 per cent in just the last month while Knight Frank's Global Residential Cities Index places Hobart house price rises in the top five in the world.
It's extraordinary that the median Hobart rent is now $532 a week – the highest of any capital other than Sydney - and in the past decade, Hobart rents have soared 56 per cent for both houses and units, more than double the national average
Under Michael Ferguson, more than 4,300 Tasmanian families remain languishing on the Liberals' historically high housing wait list and the government is going nowhere near even meeting their own announcements.
According to their promises, they should be delivering 83 houses each month and in the last month they delivered just eight.
What's just as extraordinary is that Tasmanians are stuck with a government that is in chaos and disarray and doing nothing to solve the crisis and a Housing Minister focused on factional infighting instead of building homes.
Ella Haddad MP
Shadow Housing Minister
