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More than half the new apartments set to be built on the Gold Coast are at risk of being scrapped due to skyrocketing construction and labour costs, according to a new property report.
Research commissioned by the Property Council of Australia found the amount of new apartments in the city was expected to slow in the coming years.
According to the report compiled by Urbis, about 53 per cent of approved apartment projects in the city were "at a moderate to high risk" of being withdrawn or delayed.
"Based on the growing volume of approved but inactive projects, the supply of new apartments in the Gold Coast could fall from 1,900 units in 2025 to 1,400 units in 2026," Urbis director Paul Riga said.
He said just 50 units were certain to be delivered in 2027.
"It's an alarming prospect for a city tasked with shouldering the supply of 4,500 new dwellings each year," Mr Riga said, referring to the government's housing plan for regional Queensland.
Rapid growth
The Gold Coast is one of the fastest local government areas in the region with an extra 388,000 people expected call it home over the next 22 years.
Property Council of Australia state executive director Jess Caire said the findings were concerning as apartments were expected to make up 62 per cent of the extra 161,700 dwellings needed to accommodate the growing population.
"The Gold Coast is constrained so going up is the only option, unfortunately right now it's never been more expensive to get these projects [completed]," she said.
Ms Caire said it would make finding a place to rent on the Gold Coast even harder.
"Alarmingly it is the local families who rent who will be most impacted with investors critical to building the extra apartments needed to drive down rents for the over 30 per cent of Queenslanders who rent," Ms Caire said.
Labour costs rising
Master Builders Gold Coast regional manager Adam Profke said the problem was not unique to the glitter strip.
"The cost of every single element that goes into any type of building has gone up, some items more than 40 per cent, other items less than 40 per cent," he said.
"Then you add the cost of labour — obviously the cost of living, everyone wants to be paid more, so therefore the cost of the labour plus materials has gone up."
Adam Profke says the increasing cost of construction has put a big dent in the housing market. (ABC News: Steve Keen)
Mr Profke said land scarcity was another factor impacting on housing supply on the Gold Coast.
"We do have a shortage of large parcels of land where we can build 1,000 new homes or 2,000 new homes," he said.
Neighbourhood diversity
Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon approved new planning measures earlier this week to increase housing on the site of an empty Gold Coast golf course despite council and locals rejecting a developer's plans to build on the site.
Meaghan Scanlon has given the green light for homes to be build on a defunct golf course. (ABC News: David Chen)
Former Gold Coast town planner Martin Garred said housing diversity would help solve the country's housing crisis.
"Not everyone wants to live in a 50 storey apartment building and they're also some of the most expensive to build," he said.
"It might mean more duplexes in areas where there's just houses or four-storey apartment buildings in areas that are currently just houses."
He encouraged residents to embrace change in their neighbourhoods.
"If you look at the Gold Coast 30 years ago to what it is today, it's changed a lot, and it will continue to change in the future," he said.