Approximately 5,000 residential lots are undeveloped in the council area.
78% INCREASE IN HOUSE PRICES
Council reports detached house prices rose by 78% between 2017 and its 2026 housing strategy.
131% INCREASE IN RENTS
Council reports rents rose by 131% over the same period.
ONLY 33%
Just one-third of surveyed households expect their home to meet their needs for the next 10 to 20 years.
MACKAY 2035 - WHAT SORT OF CITY WILL WE BECOME?
I was thinking recently about what Mackay might look like in 2035. Nine years doesn’t sound very far away, but looking at some of these statistics, I wonder whether we’re heading towards a very different housing market.
Here’s something that caught my attention. Six out of ten households in our region have just one or two people living in them, yet only 18% of our homes have one or two bedrooms.
For generations, we’ve built the traditional Australian home. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a backyard and a shed. But is that what we’ll need in another ten years?
With an ageing population, changing lifestyles and increasing housing costs, I suspect we’ll see greater demand for smaller homes, townhouses and low-maintenance properties.
The Northern Beaches will continue to play an important role in Mackay’s growth, while our established suburbs may become increasingly attractive because of their location and existing facilities.
But perhaps the biggest challenge isn’t where we build our next homes. It’s who will be able to afford them.
House prices have increased substantially, rents have risen even faster, and approximately one-third of Mackay’s urban households were renting at the last Census.
There’s nothing wrong with renting, and investors provide an essential service to our community. But I wonder what those numbers will look like in 2035.
Will the next generation have the same opportunity to purchase a home that many of us enjoyed? Or will homeownership become increasingly difficult?
We can build more estates, more roads and more shopping centres. We can celebrate record property prices and continued development. But building a bigger city doesn’t necessarily mean we’re building a better one.
Perhaps the real measure of Mackay’s success in 2035 won’t be how much our properties are worth. It will be whether the next generation can still afford to call one their own.
Sources
ABS regional population estimates (June 2025); ABS 2021 Census; Mackay Regional Council Housing Strategy 2026–2031.
Population and tenure figures use Mackay urban boundaries; housing statistics use the Mackay Regional Council area. Figures are from different reference years.
