Housing in Logan Part 1 - Jackie Skein

Beyond The Rona

This episode's guest is Jackie Skein, Managing Director of My Logan Realty - https://www.myloganrealty.com/

Jackie has over 10 years experience in the real estate industry. Tim first heard Jackie speak on a Facebook Live for AUS Property Investors - https://www.facebook.com/groups/Auspropertyinvestorsgroup

We begin the discussion talking about the public perception of what people think it’s like to live in Logan and how Logan City Council is working on improving Logan’s public image with campaigns like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrW2CQTAIRI

Jackie believes we should focus on our strengths such as our diversity, our sense of community and our culture and we should all work together as a community to improve our brand of Logan.

Tim, Andrea & Jackie also discuss the recent floods and the on-going clean up and what this means from a landlord’s perspective - including the landlord’s duty of care to their tenants.

We discuss rising house prices in Logan and the reasons behind the loss of rental stock in the area. We reference a recent article in My News Feed: https://mynewsfeed.com.au/rental-crisis-in-logan-beenleigh-mother-and-her-sons-on-the-brink-of-homelessness/ which blames among other things, interstate migration to Logan as a main cause of rising rents in the area.

Jackie agrees that interstate migration with those migrating from higher socioeconomic areas is certainly the case. But also, previous lockdowns and covid restrictions led to less houses being built within the usual timeframes. Rental stock being sold to owner occupiers taking more rental stock out of the market.

We then go on to discuss the idea of living in group / share housing in order to share the rising costs of living and also share the rising costs of housing. Jackie believes we have to find community-led solutions to our issues.

We discuss the need for education to become better landlords to treat their tenants better, but also education for tenants in order for tenants to know their rights as tenants.

Jackie talks about how slow and frustrating it is when housing estates are built in Logan (like Flagstone and Yarrabilba) but are missing the required roads and other infrastructure to go with the population increase - and this takes ages to catch up.

We need long term planning and investment to improve the housing situation in Logan.

Jackie's 3 Big Ideas for Housing in Logan:

1. Less Red Tape and Council Fees for building Granny Flats and building in underneath 2 storey highset houses (eg 2.2m ceiling height) - [provided it isn’t in a flood zone]

2. Tax breaks for shared / group housing

3. Remove Red Tape from Rentals (including private rentals) being available for emergency Domestic Violence Accommodation

Beyond the Rona Podcast is recorded in Logan, Queensland on Yuggera country. We acknowledge the traditional owners past and present.

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