Media Release: Queensland Housing Summit
YIMBYQld was fortunate to have a presence at last week’s Housing Summit; our CEO Natalie Rayment was in attendance.
It was heartening to hear housing diversity play such a prominent role in the conversation. As acknowledged by many panellists, Queenslanders have a diversity of needs and our housing ought to reflect that. This includes not just the missing middle density housing, but also five- or six-bedroom dwellings for families with cultural backgrounds where its customary for extended families to live together.
In her closing statement, Premier Annastasia Palaszczuk identified ‘gentle density’ as the key words of the day. Gentle density is not only good for housing affordability and equity, but for environmental and human health. We are hopeful that the focus on gentle density is a sign that our urban planning trend of the last several decades which has prioritised sprawl and mandated ‘McMansions’ is about to change.
State Government announces further support for social and affordable housing
Two big State Government announcements have already come out of the summit. The first is the doubling of the Housing Investment Fund to two billion dollars; it’s anticipated this will provide an additional 5,600 social and affordable housing units.
The second is that the Ministerial Infrastructure Designation pathway will be opened to social and affordable housing projects by community housing providers or under State funded programs.
The MID pathway is a significantly faster pathway to planning approval for essential infrastructure; it has lower costs compared to the conventional application pathway, and there is no risk of third party appeal. This pathway is already available to public housing (i.e., housing provided by governments), so this move will put community housing providers and some joint ventures on a more equal footing.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the change, which is to take immediate effect, will “get a roof over the head of more Queenslanders faster.”
“This change will see faster development of social and affordable housing projects right across the state.”
We wholeheartedly welcome this move by the State Government. However, we believe there is more that could be done in this area.
A systemic change that needs to happen is to fast-track decisions about new housing to help reduce both risk and costs, and get housing delivered more quickly.
We need further planning reform to unlock market rate missing middle housing in every neighbourhood, and greater density around transit. We need to reduce minimum lot sizes and parking requirements to further unlock delivery of more affordable housing types.
YIMBY Qld also wants to see incentives for developers outside the CHP environment to create much needed housing. We suggest offering discounts on application fees or waiving high infrastructure charges; for example, councils could waive infrastructure charges for every project that includes a component of affordable housing approved in the next year. Another option is to grant height or other density bonuses to incentivise a diversity of housing outcomes.
YIMBY Qld will be following and engaging with further developments from the Housing Summit.
For our full Housing Affordability Action Plan, please see below:
