AN ALARMING report into housing affordability has revealed an unprecedented housing crisis for workers on low to moderate incomes on the Bass Coast.
Sales assistants, farm workers, and aged and disability carers are struggling to find a place to live with just 16 per cent of low income workers able to get affordable housing.
Also grappling with the cost of local accommodation are carpenters and joiners, receptionists and chefs. Teachers and registered nurses are now among the few occupations where home ownership is still possible.
Bass Coast has more households in lower income brackets, and fewer households in high-income brackets than elsewhere in regional Victoria, with very low income earners accounting for 10.3 per cent of the population.
According to research analysts .idcommunity, 4 per cent of people on the Bass Coast are in desperate need of affordable housing with 8.5 per cent experiencing housing stress.
Renters accounted for the majority of households under stress and lone person households were found to be most in need of affordable housing.
Less than 4 per cent of low income households are able to buy a home.
The median price for a house on the Bass Coast to June 2025 was $700,000 compared to $590,000 for the rest of Victoria, and the median price for a unit was $522,500.
The average cost of renting a house on the Bass Coast is lower than some other regions at $480/week, but of the 3,200 households in private rentals, a third were found to be suffering rental stress.
The average rental for a unit on the Bass Coast is currently $418/week which is $18/week higher than most of regional Victoria.
With fewer new housing approvals last financial year, and the population continuing to grow by 1.9 per cent year-on-year the outlook for housing affordability on the Bass Coast remains grim.
People living in supported accommodation accounted for 43.9 per cent of people experiencing homelessness in Bass Coast Shire. Homeless people were found to be living in tents or sleeping out, staying temporarily with other households, staying in boarding houses or living with others in severely crowded dwellings.
With an unmet demand of 600 households on the waiting list for affordable housing in Bass Coast there seems little prospect of relief for home buyers on low to moderate incomes, or singles looking for affordable rent.
Jessica Harrison from Housing Matters auspiced by the Wonthaggi Neighbourhood Centre has called for an urgent building program of 100 new dwellings a year in Bass Coast with secure tenancies and rentals capped at 25 per cent of tenant income.
“This will address years of neglect of new public housing builds,” said Jessica.
“At the moment rents are unaffordable for anyone on low pay or a fixed income.”
In South Gippsland it is farm workers that have been hardest hit by the housing crisis.
Buying a house is now considered out of reach for most livestock workers with only 12.3 per cent of farm workers in South Gippsland able to afford to buy a home.
Housing affordability varied across South Gippsland with Foster the most affordable place to buy a home, and Fish Creek and Sandy Point the most unaffordable.
When it came to renting, Foster was again the most affordable place to live with 60 per cent of rental homes in Foster within reach of those on low to moderate incomes.
Leongatha, Fish Creek and Sandy Point were considered to be the least affordable.
Of the relatively few people experiencing homelessness in South Gippsland Shire the vast majority were found to be either staying temporarily with other households or living in supported accommodation.
Bass Coast Shire Council said it continued to advocate strongly to the Victorian and Federal governments for an uplift in affordable housing where it is most needed.
“Council has supported successful key worker housing projects through the Regional Worker Accommodation Fund, partnered with community groups to strengthen advocacy for housing and homelessness services, and facilitated partnerships to bring more social housing to Bass Coast with investment through the Big Housing Build.”