To free up Cooktown’s housing crisis, Torres Cape Hospital & Health Service announced this month they will be releasing 21 rental houses from their letting pool. These properties will be released at the end of their headleases, or earlier if landlords wish, with no options to be taken. Cook Shire Council transacted a large number of blocks down in the Rock Garden on Garden & Power Streets to facilitate the process in 2024. The high-speed construction of the health campus was enabled by using prefabricated units that were trucked up the Mulligan Highway. Coming online in the coming months these facilities will replace many currently rented properties and provide additional housing for a growing workforce.
Easily seen or considered negative for the investment property market. The reality is that this will free up housing for locals and those moving to town for work, a positive situation. Our town cannot grow if newcomers cannot find housing especially those working in essential services, or those seeking to buy a house to buy or develop a much-needed business. With the construction of the new Cooktown hospital, a number of the freed-up houses will be taken up by the tendering construction companies for staff for a July 25 start and a 2 year build period. Short term the void should be quickly filled maintaining rental rates. However, in midterm it is likely to cool rental rates, especially those rentals on the outskirts of town or houses where owners have neglected to keep the properties up to date or made improvements. There is a huge pool of housing throughout the region that would not even meet RTA minimum housing standards. Let’s not forget that many of the longer-term staff that will end up in such campus housing are also likely to want more privacy down the track and less wind than what will be on offer.
