Housing Industry Association chief executive John Futer said the housing crisis would continue for "as long as China and India are going to be demanding natural resources, especially coal".

 

Towns such as Emerald in Queensland and Maitland and Singleton in New South Wales have experienced greater demand for housing influenced by the coal mining industry, which in turn has pushed prices up, in some cases to more than three times what they were a few years ago.

 

But prices alone are not the only problem. Futer said the skills shortage was also coming into play, with the shortage of tradespeople including plasterers, tilers and concreters pushing the price of labour up, and reducing the industry's ability to keep up with demand.

 

“Obviously if the cost of labour goes up it's having a profound impact on [housing] prices,” Futer said.

 

“Not only are the costs going to be higher, but we're not going to be able to build enough houses."

 

Former Emerald mayor and member of the new Central Highlands Regional Council Peter Maguire agreed, suggesting that many people who could fill spots in the housing industry could be taking higher-paid jobs with coal mining contractors or companies.

 

Maitland Mayor Peter Blackmore said the lower end of the housing market in Maitland was drying up rapidly, with a large number of new developments occurring that are out of reach for many residents.

 

“You have a lot of residential development, but we're talking three to four bedroom houses, and of course that takes it out of the reach of the low income earners," he said.

 

While some miners choose to move into mining towns to be able to work close to where their families live, others are left to fly in, fly out, or make the long drive to and from work each day. Some miners have access to company-provided accommodation, however Maguire said this was becoming less common.

 

“At a lot of the development they're providing accommodation where people fly in, fly out or drive in, drive out to work, so in some cases nowadays they aren't supplying the amount of accommodation they used to," he said.

 

Concerns about the social environment created by the one-man dongas that used to be commonplace in the mining industry have made it more difficult for companies to provide space- and cost-effective housing for workers.

 

The increasing pressure on housing from miners who want to live closer to work has brought more difficulties for local residents who are not employed, directly or indirectly, by high-paying mining companies.

 

“One of the big problems we've got here [in Emerald] is the affordable accommodation; not everyone's earning the big money that some people are able to," Maguire said.

 

“Some people are still on lower incomes and are unable to afford to live in these areas, so that's a real concern."

 

Futer suggested that possible solutions to the housing crisis included portable housing, which can be anything from a pre-made house that is easy to build and dismantle to old shipping containers converted to serve as housing.

 

However, availability of land for housing is also an issue facing some of the mining towns. Maguire said in some coal mining areas there is little or no freehold land available to developers.

 

“A lot of it's state land, so they have to get that land out of the state, which involves native title clearances and all those other things that have to happen … it does take time and that's slowing up the process for a lot of people," he said.

 

One coal mining town that has found a solution is Singleton, in the heart of the Hunter Valley. With 16 coal mines in the area Singleton has experienced a lot of growth over the past decade.

 

Mayor Fred Harvison said that when he arrived in Singleton 11 years ago an older-style house on a large block outside of the town would have cost around $110,000, but that the same house today would be more likely to cost between $300,000 and $400,000.

 

Harvison said that, while Singleton is experiencing a shortage of both housing and rental accommodation, the council has plans in place to help counteract the problem. A few years ago, the council invested in a parcel of land that it is now working to develop for housing.

 

“We as a council are in the process of working to release more residential land,” he said.

 

“We've been looking at our land-use strategy. We own a parcel of land and we've gone into partnership with a private developer to develop that land and release that onto the market."

 

The council is also encouraging private development, in particular duplex and triplex properties that can make more efficient use of the land available.

 

“They are building on that block of land three or four units or villas, and that's helping alleviate those housing shortage problems," Harvison said.