Housing Strategy
Noosa Housing Strategy
Noosa Council is greatly concerned by the housing crisis currently gripping the Shire. This is having a significant social and economic impact on the community and requires action by all levels of government as well as the broader community.
In November 2022, Noosa Council endorsed the Noosa Housing Strategy 2022(PDF, 2MB), demonstrating its commitment to reducing inequity, promoting inclusiveness, and providing safe, affordable housing for residents to live, meet, and play. The Housing Strategy was informed by a Housing Needs Assessment, endorsed by council in December 2021. This Assessment is a comprehensive technical report on the context of housing households in Noosa Shire.
Collaborative approach
Underpinning the success of the Housing Strategy will be ongoing open conversations and partnerships with the State and Federal Government, with community housing providers, private housing developers and with the Noosa community. In essence this can be summarised as ensuring there is the right amount of housing, of the right type and size, in the right place and with the right tenure for our community.
Regular monitoring and review
The strategy calls for regular monitoring and review to ensure actions and interventions advance us towards meeting its objectives. This will help provide housing choice, diversity and affordability to meet the current and future needs of the community. Council has subscribed to an online housing monitor specific to Noosa Shire. This digital resource is updated each year and outlines housing supply and demand, housing diversity, affordability and availability. You can explore the housing story at Noosa at: https://housing.id.com.au/noosa
Initiatives
Encouraging secondary dwellings
In line with the actions in Noosa's Housing Strategy, Council's encouraging the construction of more secondary dwellings, by ceasing to issue the Infrastructure Charges from 1 July 2025. This information sheet(PDF, 103KB) contains the details. It's hoped this significant saving will encourage more homeowners to add a self-contained flat or studio to their home, creating a new home for another local resident.
Secondary dwellings, either attached to the house or elsewhere in the yard offer small homes for small local households such as single people, couples or a sole parent with a child. They can be rented out to permanent tenants and the rental income can help homeowners. For instance, converting space downstairs into a self-contained flat when your kids have left home, turning the unused upstairs into a flat when you live on the ground level yourself, or building a small dwelling in the back yard are all ideas to make use of spare space. Even prefabricated modular dwellings can make excellent secondary dwellings as long and building and plumbing approval is gained. In most cases no Council planning approval is needed, just talk to your private certifiers about the rules. More information on the rules around secondary dwellings is available from the Noosa Plan 2020 website https://noosa2.systest.datafree.co/Planning-and-Development/Noosa-Plan-2020/User-Guides-and-Fact-Sheets
Queensland Housing Profiles
The State Government provides the ability to create and view a housing profile for Noosa Shire and smaller Statistical Areas within it, such as Noosa Hinterland, Tewantin, Noosaville, Noosa Heads, Sunshine Beah (including Sunrise Beach and Castaways Beach) and Peregian-Marcus Beaches. You can also build custom regions and compare them with other areas, including state and local government areas.
You can access the Queensland Housing Profiles page https://statistics.qgso.qld.gov.au/hpw/profiles