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They look after our children, take care of us when we’re sick, and educate the next generation.
But a new report from the Property Council of Australia shows frontline workers are among those most unable to afford to live in Queensland.
The Beyond Reach report has found affordable housing — where housing costs are 30 per cent or less of income — has "almost ceased to exist" for essential workers in south-east Queensland.
"For dual income families with an average gross income of $150,000, buying an established home is ranked 'beyond reach'," Queensland executive director Jess Caire said.
"It’s a similar story for house and land packages, which are deemed 'unaffordable'."
According to the report, a full-time childcare worker on an average wage of $62,407 a year would need to spend 40 to 65 per cent of their income on renting a home, and between 30 to 55 per cent on a unit.
A full-time public servant on an average wage of $95,747 a year would need to spend 30 to 50 per cent of their income on renting a home, and between just over 20 to 40 per cent on a unit.
Renting is more affordable in a dual-income household, but with one per cent vacancy across the state, Ms Caire said frontline workers get very little choice in what kind of home they live in and where.
"They might end up having a choice around their career — either [they choose] somewhere else to live or they choose a different career, which is only going to make things 10 times harder for us here," she said.
Last month's budget included funding for 2,600 new nurse and midwife positions statewide, but the Queensland Nurses and Midwives' Union said without affordable and accessible housing, the goal will be a difficult one to meet.
"The commitment must be complemented with a detailed workforce plan that outlines how the government intends to recruit, retain and respect our nurses and midwives. This must include secure and affordable housing where it's needed," it said in a statement.
How do we fix the problem?
Professor Nicole Gurran, an urban planner and policy analyst from the University of Sydney, said using land that "might not be zoned for housing" could form part of the solution.
"If it's associated with meeting workforce needs you could have residential housing there and it reduces the cost of providing that housing," she said.
"Shared equity schemes for key workers that are managed and provided by government are ideal."
Ms Caire is calling on the next Queensland government to establish an inquiry into the impact of the taxation system on the delivery of new homes.
The property council's report claims more than 30 per cent of the cost for a new home is made up of taxes and fees.
KPMG chief economist Brendan Rynne agrees that the property tax system needs to be re-evaluated.
But he said reducing or scrapping taxes for new builds isn’t likely to cause a huge change in the overall cost of homes.
"Existing houses have already had that cost built into their cost base... The vast majority of accommodation is existing stock," Dr Rynne said.
"The price level [that would] start coming in would … put a bit of downward pressure at the margin on existing houses.
"[But] it would be difficult to see how a 30 per cent price differential would filter its way through to existing stuff inside the inner part of a city."
Dr Rynne said the housing crisis is fundamentally a problem of supply.
"Mucking around with taxes… at the margin isn't going to be enough to have wholesale price reductions on there in real or nominal terms," he said.
"Fundamentally, what needs to change is that we need to enable housing supply to happen much faster."
Premier to meet group next week
At a press conference on Monday, Queensland Premier Steven Miles said the government has been concerned about housing pressures for frontline workers for "some time".
"We really need essential workers to be able to live close to where they work, to raise their families," he said.
He said the government was acting by implementing affordability requirements into the planning schemes, investing in affordable housing projects.
"We've said if developers have proposals to build higher density units close to rapid transit, particularly our train stations, we'll subsidise the infrastructure charges for them – that's just how much we want to see new, affordable stock delivered, particularly in the south east," he said.
Asked about the property council's calls for a taxation review, Mr Miles said he will meet with the group next week.
Opposition leader David Crisafulli said the report highlighted how "dire" the housing situation has become.
"When we've reached the point that frontline staff are unable to live in the areas they serve, you know that the crisis has deepened to levels the likes of which we never thought we'd see in this state," he said.