Construction companies on the Gold Coast are looking at ways to mitigate the issues of housing affordability and cost of living on the glitter strip in the form of one-bedroom dongas.

A donga is a transportable building with a singular room that is typically used for temporary accommodation. They can be built off site, making them more sustainable, and would ultimately be used to combat the housing shortage projected on both the Gold Coast and around the country.

My Bella Casa Founding Director Tamika Smith is an advocate for the mass production of the tiny homes.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result," she tells the ABC.

"What we want to see is what the government is seeking to do differently."

Smith says that small modular homes should be considered by the government to alleviate housing issues.

"The sloping sites, the flood-affected areas, we can build them off up on stilts. I think off-site construction has traditionally been compared with a donga, the mining camps. It looks nothing like that for what we deliver, but it's an innovative way to build affordable housing."

Smith says the implementation of dongas in the region could completely alter the housing landscape.

"We've come to the table and said, 'We know we need to do things differently, we're going to manage this process, we're going to build it, we're going to fund it'," she says.

"Ten blocks in every suburb would at least implement 100 houses on the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast seems to be ignorant in assuming it doesn't have an affordable housing crisis, but in fact it does."

REA Group Property Analyst Cameron Kusher says there is a lack of rental supply on the glitter strip as it struggles to cope with a fast growing population attributed to people heading north in the wake of the pandemic.

"On the Gold Coast, we've seen rents for houses increase by almost 23 percent over the past year," he says.

Smith says My Bella Casa have devised a scheme in which renters are looked after due to a 20-year fixed rent period.

"We've structured a program where we lease the homes to housing providers, we're looking at 50 to 100 every year, but we merely transfer the asset after those long-term leases end.”

For more information on My Bella Casa, click here.

Jarrod Reedie

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