Queensland Housing Roundtable

Today, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk held a Housing Roundtable with local and state government representatives alongside non-government stakeholders including QShelter, QCOSS, the REIQ, Property Council of Australia, Master Builders, and the Planning Institute of Australia.

While housing shortages are an issue across the country, Queensland is experiencing a period of mass interstate migration. In the last financial year, 50,000 people moved to Queensland. That is up from pre-COVID levels of 20,000 per year, placing unprecedented pressure on the private rental market.

The increased national migration intake, continuing global supply chain issues, and a shortage of skilled tradesmen, has meant that the supply of housing is being outpaced by demand.

The Palaszczuk Government will hold a Housing Summit on Thursday 20 October 2022.

Queensland Solutions

Key issues discussed at the roundtable includes the fast-tracking of social housing projects, unlocking land, and collaborating with the owners of vacant properties and land. The Queensland Government has also called for urgent collaboration on housing by all levels of government, and the private sector.

The Queensland Government has committed to:

The Queensland Housing Strategy 2017-2027 can be accessed here.

Queensland’s Griffith University has offered the state government an unused 200 bed student accommodation block at its Mount Gravatt campus to be used for crisis accommodation. The Queensland Government has called out to other organisations to follow Griffith University’s lead. The Catholic church has identified 90 blocks of land across the state and will work with government on the possibility of using the vacant land for accommodation.

Also discussed at the roundtable was the possibility of introducing inclusionary zoning or similar policies. The UK’s policy of 25 per cent of new housing developments being put aside for affordable or social housing was pointed to as an example. Premier Palaszczuk said that the government will explore the idea further.

The taxing of vacant properties to incentivise their use as homes, as well as a proposal from Brisbane’s Lord Mayor for a state-wide tax on Airbnb’s, were also raised at the roundtable.

Next Steps

Today’s roundtable was a first step toward the Queensland Housing Summit which will be held on Thursday 20 October 2022. The Premier will be writing to the Prime Minister seeking for the national issue of housing to be discussed at National Cabinet.

For more information, please contact Hawker Britton’s Queensland Director Emma Ramage at [email protected] or on +61 430 811 929.

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