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The construction of a new hospital in Victoria is set to send local residential median rents through the roof.
The $630 million project to construct a new Bendigo hospital is expected to create more than 770 jobs during construction, meaning accommodation for trades and service suppliers will be a key challenge.
According to the Bendigo Advertiser, Bendigo Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) chairman Matt Leonard questioned where all the tradespeople would be housed.
“We saw the demand for accommodation when the Bendigo Bank was being constructed; it was huge,” the newspaper reported.
“We’ve got a division of our company now which is furnished accommodation and that was created out of demand during construction of the Bendigo Bank.
“We’re now talking about a project that is 10 times the size of the Bendigo Bank project.
“So my question was, ‘How much accommodation will be required throughout the project and will that be more furnished accommodation or longer-term rentals?’”
According to Mr Leonard, many people did not fully comprehend the scale of the project and the demand for housing it would result in.
“Without being able to give statistics, they were able to say there’s a lot of accommodation that is going to be required from furnished, normal rentals, caravan parks and shared housing,” he said.
“From a real estate point of view, yes, there are pros and cons as a result of this.
“The pros are that this, generally speaking, will push yields and rental returns up.
“When that happens, that also tends to push prices up and we would anticipate that homeowners could see somewhere between seven and 10 per cent growth over the next year.
“But the negative side is the current vacancy rate - which is about one per cent - will definitely fall.
“So it can be harder for your mums and dads, university students, people who are relocating to Bendigo or renters in the Bendigo market to actually find a rental property.
“In a nutshell, property will be in very hot demand.”
