Qld expands housing panel to tackle the growing crisis

Deputy Premier Dr Steven Miles has directed the panel to provide advice about what more councils should do to address housing supply, stating that affordability and housing supply should be the “number one priority” of local government at this time.

The Deputy Premier called for “out of date” housing strategies to be updated due to the growth in population seen in the state.

“The Palaszczuk Government stands ready to work with and assist Councils to deliver affordable homes to meet population growth, as we are doing in the Moreton Bay region,” Dr Miles said.

“Last year I launched the Growth Areas Team to help proactively address land supply challenges and better coordinate stakeholders to bring new land supply to market.”

Dr Miles informed that Caboolture West is the “first priority growth area” that has been identified by the growth areas team, which is in the process of unlocking 30,000 lots.

Furthermore, the Deputy Premier said the South-East Queensland regional planning committee would meet on Friday, 9 September 2022 for discussions regarding plans to match infrastructure population growth.

“I met LGAQ specifically on housing three weeks ago and offered to assist Councils to expand housing supply,” Dr Miles stated.

“I look forward to hearing the solutions and ideas Mayors bring to the Regional Planning meeting on Friday.”

For the Far North Queensland regional planning committee in Cairns, Dr Miles also announced an expansion to the remit of the panel to the entire state.

“The housing shortage isn’t just in the South East. People are moving to the regions too and we need to support all our [Councils] to increase housing supply,” Dr Miles concluded.

“The Far North Queensland Councils are aware of this and I welcome their suggestion to expand the panel’s work to the whole state.

“We’ve also invested $200,000 to assist the Western Queensland Alliance of Councils [to] deliver local housing action plans.”

There has been a recent call for Queensland to repeal the incoming land tax laws that would see property investors taxed based on their whole portfolio, regardless of location.

This would mean those who own property in Queensland as well as in another state or territory would need to declare their interstate land holdings, including land description, value and percentage of ownership.

[RELATED: REIQ calls for repeal of ‘illogical’ Qld land tax regime]