In 2018, Hobart's showground was at the centre of Tasmania's housing crisis, as people with nowhere else to turn set up camp across the site.
"We'd been inundated with people who needed somewhere to stay, most of them were in tents," Scott Gadd from the Royal Agricultural Show Society recalled.
Shortly after the March state election that year, the then-Hodgman government called together housing sector stakeholders from across Tasmania to participate in an urgent housing summit.
A series of improvements were promised, and some changes were made — such as public land releases for new housing.
Fast-forward to 2022, and Mr Gadd believes the situation has worsened.
"We still get just as many presentations as we did back then, it's just that we don't take them all," Mr Gadd said.
"You would think in a normal market they would be excellent tenants."
Worse and different
Pattie Chugg from Shelter Tasmania, the peak body for housing and homelessness, believes the situation now is quite different to what it was in 2018, due to factors such as population growth, a tight private rental market, the impact of short-stay accommodation, and rising house prices.
And, it is being felt right across the state.
"It was a stressed market, but now it's super stressed," Ms Chugg said.
"We need to really ramp up what we're doing around housing."
In March 2018, Hobart's median house price was about $440,000. In March this year, it was $753,000.
Tasmania's median house price rose nearly 80 per cent in the year to March 2019, to $520,000 — much higher than the $290,000 recorded in March 2018.
Around Tasmania, rent rose 11 per cent over that same period, and vacancy rates remain extremely low.
In central Hobart, rent costs an average of $600 a week. In Launceston it's $470, and on the north-west coast, it's risen to $400.
As Colony 47's Danny Sutton points out, the number of people on Tasmania's public housing waiting list has also skyrocketed since 2018.
Back then, about 3,412 people were on the list. Now, it is at 4,431.
"The demand for services has increased, it's been quite clear over the last few years with a very challenging housing market," Mr Sutton said.
Another major housing meeting
Like the former premier four years before, the Rockliff government organised a meeting of a new housing reference group to discuss solutions — similar to the 2018 Housing Summit.
The group of 17 housing stakeholders met on Monday, and the government is optimistic the reference group will help it address gaps in the housing response.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff said it was about planning for the future.
"We will continue to listen and work with the community and key stakeholders as we respond to this demand, and continue doing all we can to alleviate housing pressure, right across the state."
Housing Minister Guy Barnett said a new, 20-year housing strategy would be in place by next year.
But Mr Barnett indicated that stronger short-stay accommodation regulations were unlikely.
"We feel we've got the balance right," he said.
The government has previously announced plans to build 10,000 social and affordable homes over the next decade.
"I think everyone agrees we have a very ambitious agenda," Mr Barnett said.
The state opposition is sceptical that the meeting will make any real difference, especially without reforms to planning laws and short-stay accommodation regulations.
"You have to ask yourself, what is another talkfest going to achieve when the government has ignored everything the sector and community has been telling them now for a decade," Labor's Ella Haddad said.
