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The state now has new powers to fast track development applications and condition approval on meeting social and affordable housing requirements.
With the passage of the Housing Availability and Affordability Bill, Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon said the Sunshine State is now equipped to build “more homes, faster – plain and simple”.
“Our bill slashes planning barriers, speeds up infrastructure delivery, and fuels housing construction,” she said.
Primarily, the bill makes the necessary provisions to establish a State Facilitated Development team to fast track the assessment of development applications for infill housing developments, with an eye to speeding up residential building that includes affordable or social housing.
Development applications or modifications approved through the State Facilitated Development team also limit the right to appeal, and can remove planning barriers such as policy measures deemed to be outdated that are hindering housing and land supply in locations where critical housing is needed.
The bill also allows the Housing Minister to condition social and affordable housing on development applications, and empowers the Planning Minister to acquire land or create easements in situations where shared infrastructure like water, power and roads need to pass through multiple land parcels to enable the construction of large-scale developments.
A number of other initiatives that were outlined in the state’s recent housing plan, Homes for Queenslanders, have also been given the go-ahead in this legislation, including ground lease trials on government land and the $350 million incentive funding for infill developments.
The state is promising that under these changes, some developments will be able to get the go-ahead in as little as 75 business days.
“Industry tells us that other states already take too much time to approve housing developments; this bill will allow us to approve projects much quicker,” Scanlon said.
Queensland’s media release on the new bill singled out Victoria, where reports of development applications taking four years to work their way through the approvals process have been highlighted by industry.
Scanlon emphasised how the Queensland government has worked with the building sector to address some of the barriers it faces to getting new builds off the ground.
“We need to plan well and plan ahead by pulling new levers in the planning space and unlock supply for more homes faster. The passing of this bill allows this to occur,” she said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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