The dream of home ownership is within reach for the predominantly Indigenous residents of two of Queensland's remotest towns after a Burke Shire Council project received Ministerial approval on Thursday.
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Home ownership in Burketown and Gregory has long been on the agenda however, requests by banks for deposits of up to 60 per cent due to geographic isolation in the Gulf have thwarted previous attempts to make it a reality.
Council is the largest property holder in the local government area and it will sell up to 21 properties as part of an innovative divestment of assets.
Council CEO Clare Keenan said it would have tremendous benefits to both Indigenous residents and ratepayers.
"The cost of repairs and maintenance to this Council housing, much of which is already occupied by staff who want to experience home ownership, far exceeds rental income in direct costs, and significantly more if the administration cost of property management is factored in," Ms Keenan said.
"Home ownership is such a fundamental part of Australian life, yet Indigenous staff and residents up here have been told point blank for years that they needed absolutely ridiculous deposits that banks would never ask customers in less remote parts of the country to come up with."
Ms Keenan said as well as the positive social, inter-generational economic and community benefits of facilitating local home ownership, divesting of these properties will allow Council to deliver more value to ratepayers and allow them to build new houses to attract new staff
Council's Community Services and Compliance Team Leader, Madison Marshall, rents one of the properties with her sister and fellow employee, Jordan.
She said the project green light was exciting and meant home ownership was a genuine proposition.
Mayor Ernie Camp praised Minister for Local Government Stirling Hinchliffe for providing the exemption required for Council to divest the properties, and Westpac for "coming to the table to come up with an equitable solution to remote mortgages".
"This is just a brilliant result for our community, and I thank the Minister and Westpac for taking a big-picture approach to finding a solution to the problem of remote lending that has for too long been discriminating against residents in remote areas such as Burke Shire, many of whom are Indigenous and have long thought owning their own home was nothing more than a pipe dream," Cr Camp said.
Burke Shire Council is now encouraging other financial institutions to follow Westpac's lead and come on board to enable equity in home ownership for Australians, regardless of their postcode.
"When this project is complete, we believe that Burketown may have the greatest proportion of Aboriginal-owned freehold residential land of any Australian town," Cr Camp said.
"We are keen to showcase it as a working multi-cultural model that can be rolled out across the rest of the country."
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
