Curious how others see it: is this a sensible stopgap, or does it just hide a deeper housing problem? Has anyone here tried living in a caravan or tiny space long term, and what did you learn?
Renting a caravan and setting up in someone's back yard does seem like one option people have tried, but there are times it runs foul of local ordinates in place regarding length of time etc.
Some people would see it purely as a housing crisis but I feel it really ignores the fact that a great number of van parks have either priced themselves out of being an affordable alternative or faced increased costs and further regulations which inevitably saw them close shop. Presently since solar means less reliance on powered sites, I see more vans and motor homes pulled up near rest areas, and other like places for a few days until they move on.
In my locale, North Central Queensland, even 30 years ago the caravan parks were starting to stall, many were simply encroached and then displaced by urban sprawl, but there was also the dwindling seasonal migration of workers from south to north and back south again following the seasonal jobs. I think it was just banks and finance firms made it too tough on those who did not have permanent jobs to borrow to be able to put down roots on a block of land - the only real choice was to aim for permanent work instead. So though I don't recall all the parks that used to exist around my parts I still recall the few large parks that made way for a small suburb of residential houses ...
Edit intro paragraph hour later for clarity
Australia needs to stop playing with the world economy bringing in crazy numbers of people and fix their local problems first. THe speed is whats causing too many factors to change and too many ordinary people to lose.
Same for homes, walk a few homes and ones for sale, look across the road theres another. Its not rare too see clusters of 2 or 3 or even 4 for sale, and im not including new builds. Every street seems to have not 1 but a few for sale.
Its easily the biggest sale i have ever seen.
I would guess for those who can afford to, they've moved to a hybrid or electric vehicle and as such selling their old car down your way. As for a jump in property sales ... there's a few possibilities, higher interest rates on loan repayments has meant they have little choice to let go of their plan, people are moving to better opportunities which could even explain some clusters though I would more likely presume these clusters are sellers who bought properties as an investment / business, are exiting before proposed changes to tax kick in. I'm not sure if the tax is in yet, though my ears have been ringing chatting low to middle income folks who've been lead down the path that this tax will ruin them - no not really, from what I understood, it so that those in the property market buying (flipping) and selling as a business pay more tax than they currently do as they undertake it clearly as a business and not a hobby.
The increase of fuel, unavoidable as it is, IMHO, no direct fault of Aust entities here, is the probable reduction of tourists visiting my region, domestic or international, travelling the roads as much as they once did. Actually camper vans were always more popular with oversea tourists particularly back packers than a caravan. The roads up our way are not as forgiving as they are down south.
Australia first and all that.
This is just one example of why participating on the world stage makes everyone a loser, here and around the world.
About house flipping - of course there are a few, but most are just ordinary people trying their best. The next interest rate or major world news will i predict cause numbers of both cars and homes for sale go up again.
I forgot to make it clear in my previous post, but the cars for sale isnt limited to just a few, there are cars for sale on many many streets both major roads/thoroughfares and random streets. Its not normal too see this quantity, the factor is easily up by over 10x perhaps more.
If I were to be annoyed with anything and take issue with, it was the dog and pony show 30 - 40 years ago in regard to moving towards producing ethanol, in particular from sugar cane which was once a prolific and hardy crop that used to grow along much of the North Queensland coast down to Central Queensland ... but there are those with hands on the reins which are heavily invested with crystal sugar production and make $$$$ even if sugar is sold below the production costs of farmers and millers alike. Was a prolific crop is the right phrase, once cane land offered a near unbroken scenery, but a significant proportion of that cane land is now cattle land ... or housing in my region.
I too am more familiar with those who've bought into an area, fixed and sold up as they moved on when their job finished or a better opportunity arrived. I also know there are folks who have had the means albeit slowly, to slowly buy a couple of properties for investment purposes over the years and often rent out. Of course they do from time to time sell off some properties. The changes I think target those who are prominently buying and selling properties as a livelihood, most likely those have been fortunate to have hundreds of thousands spare to take on a number of projects over decade long periods
[1] https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/australia/crude-oil-ex...
[2] https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Australia/gasoline_consumpt...
[3] https://www.ga.gov.au/aecr2025/oil
> In 2023, nearly 80% of all oil production was from offshore fields on Australia’s North West Shelf (Northern Carnarvon, Browse and Bonaparte basins), this included condensate produced from a few large gas fields. Australia’s domestic crude oil production continues to decline rapidly, and without new commercial discoveries, production is projected to cease within the next 7 years.
This sort of short term profits before loyalty to our country is what is ruining the country in so many ways.
I would add that I've noted there's been a sharp decline of camper vans and caravans travelling the roads when I've headed down the highway - it means less money from tourism as well as agriculture and only next year will the bigger picture begin to emerge. It's a pity we didn't have a large cane ethanol industry that had been growing from the 90s, and a portion of us driving vehicles with imported Brazilian engines [hmm] running ethanol that can be bought at the bowser cheaply.
Regarding domestic markets competing with higher world prices: In Queensland the state govt of the time, a few years ago now, placed higher royalties < xx iirc 5 xx> 6 [1] different rates dependant on the sale price of coal. They did this after the price of coal soared to all time highs for world markets and Fat Cat Coal decided the domestic market should compete with global prices ... they're still spitting chips about the govt's response, running ads against the govt claiming world's highest whatever whine whine ... but fair dinkum price equals a fair dinkum royalty ... gouge price sets a nice fat royalty rate :)
Regarding the import export balance, agree that it's not that important, there's already been a decline in crude oil output from our oil fields and what is concerning is the lower projected quantities Australian oil field are expected to produce ... of course reading a good comment [2] and fortunate to get an equally informative reply to a question I had about vegetable oil, mentioning the amount of renewable fuel being refined in California ... it should be possible with a bit of direction and effort to increase vegetable oil production within Australia and modernise a refinery that's facing decommissioning eg [3]
[hmm] ... because car manufactures screamed blue murder the US built ones don't run properly on ethanol
[1] https://qro.qld.gov.au/royalty/calculate-mineral/rates/
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47968313 > Fun fact: over 70% of diesel sold in California is now renewable or bio diesel
Many other oil producing countries for oil companies within their lands to sell at a reduced price. Examples include all the mid east oil producers, Venezuela and previously America.
Doing actions like this to control the market is the responsibility of governments, they write laws, they can force anythign they wish. Big oil isnt going to leave AU even if they sold petrol at half of todays price they are still making a killing. A lot of half is still better than all of nothing.
> it means less money from tourism as well as agriculture and only next year will the bigger picture begin to emerge.
Tourism is a suckers market, we tax payers get the bill for big items like airports.
These days when you try too hard you actually end up losing, just ask tourism busy places like Paris or Barcelona.
As for tourism and our tax dollars at work ... well airports were going to happen up our way regardless of tourists given the long distance some of the locals have to travel from time to time. However it is true of local council rates, in my region at least of all -- countless hundreds of thousands spent building features to give tourists something to stand next to and take selfies, reworking a handful of inner city streets to beautify them as a tourist draw card and opening the doors for development for high rise hotels to try and corner the convention market ... in the mean time little to help caravan parks still struggling on or creating suitable caravan parking at various places throughout the town ... but it does now have a ring road so the savvy caravaner / traveller can bypass it and continue on to the next truck stop / service station.
Of course airports are good, but the bigger airport, means locals get the bill not the visitors.
Reminds me of internation students. Aussie tax payers paid billions for the new trams etc to move students from unis to the city, and as a bonus local aussies cant get into the unis because their slots were sold on the international market.
Thats just wrong. The kids of aussies parents paid for everything, get shafted.
> ountless hundreds of thousands spent building features to give tourists something to stand next to and take selfies, reworking a handful of inner city streets to beautify them as a tourist draw card and opening the doors for development for high rise hotels to try and corner the convention market
Exactly, progress actually hurts the local housing market. Perfect example of how this excessive tourism hurts Aussies in multiple vectors, paying the construction, maintenance, and house pricing.
Every action has side effects, and we are seeing the consequences hurt Australians today and the near future.