Housing experts warn Logan’s focus on urban sprawl, paired with a high number of low-income households, could displace vulnerable residents as the 2032 Olympics approaches.
Q Shelter, a housing advocacy group, said displacement in Logan could worsen, citing reports of thousands being relocated in Paris to make way for the 2024 Olympics.
Last week Q Shelter released a report detailing the state of housing in south-east Queensland.
The report will be released annually until 2032, monitoring the impact the Olympics will have on the homeless, renters and homeowners.
There are concerns tourism-driven short-term accommodation could push local households into housing insecurity and homelessness.
“It’s not just Brisbane centric – we think the impact of the games will be pronounced in and around south-east Queensland,” Q Shelter policy and strategic manager Jackson Hills said.
“We also think the housing markets will be under pressure in those locations.
“As prices go up in Brisbane, if stock moves out of the private rental market into the short stay accommodation market as we expect it to, and if we don’t get the sort of supply into our system in Brisbane that we expect we need, it will actually push more pressures out into those other locations.”
He said buyers would be priced out of Brisbane and pushed into areas such as Logan, where rental costs have risen by 54 per cent in three years.
“There will be lots of gentrification that happens as part of the games in some of these locations,” Mr Hills said.
“That usually means some of the low-cost accommodation is lost to those markets, new housing is developed at a higher price point, and things like boarding houses and social housing are done away with.
“It means those low to moderate income earners are pushed out to the fringes.”
The report highlights Logan’s vulnerability, noting it has the region’s highest ratio of social housing to households with more than 410 social dwellings per 10,000 households.
Logan also has the highest percentage of social housing applicants who are either homeless or at risk of being homeless, with 54 per cent falling into this bracket – a decrease from 60 per cent in 2022.
“There is still not enough social housing in Logan to service the need,” Mr Hills said.
“Logan has a high proportion of refugees and migrants because it is one of the settlement areas.
“A lot of those settlements actually can’t access social housing, so they have to find their housing solution through the private rental market.”
He said if the construction of social housing did not keep up with population growth, and if medium house prices rose considerably, some low-to moderate income families would not “be able to afford prices in Logan”.
“They will have to move somewhere else, and looking at south-east Queensland, I’m not sure where else they would go because this pressure is happening in the Gold Coast, Ipswich, Moreton Bay, Redland, Sunshine Coast,” Mr Hill said.
“In some cases, people will have to relocate to the regions, but they’re just not set up to service that demand.”
To prevent forced migration from amplifying over the next decade, Mr Hill said there needed to be a focus on “greater housing density and diversity”.
He said urban sprawl only suited medium to higher income households.
“We are concerned about urban sprawl because if you continue to put low-income households out in greenfield locations where there’s no services and no transport, they end up spending most of their take home pay just getting to work.
“It compromises their spend on other activities, whether it’s at the grocery store or on health costs and everything else.
“It’s cheaper to build, so therefore it’s cheaper in terms of the price point at the end, but it’s not cheaper to live in.”
Mr Hill said there needed to be a greater focus on building more housing in urban areas and reserving some of that housing for low-income households.
“We need our politicians, particularly at the local and state level, to be brave when it comes to having those conversations with the community,” he said.
“That includes educating the community on how much population growth is coming and also the sorts of people that need this type of help.
“These are our cafe workers, our emergency workers, transport staff – key workers require this housing.
“They are also our future generations – kids that are graduating from school and everything else.
“Without more density, I don’t know where they’re going to live.”
Q Shelter hopes its reports would be used to help calibrate policy responses ahead of the games to ensure proper planning.
The plan has been backed by local community services organisation YFS, The Salvation Army, InCommunity, the Committee for Brisbane, and Brisbane Youth Service.