The policy allows for a:
- 75 per cent reduction for developments approved between January 1, 2022, and August 31, 2023
- 50 per cent reduction for developments approved between September 1, 2023, and June 30, 2025
- 100 per cent reduction for community housing providers as a permanent initiative.
Brisbane Housing Company in October 2023 estimated it would save them $2 million over three social and affordable housing projects, which would be re-invested into new projects. The community housing element is also supported by Labor.
Fotheringham agreed the concession for community housing would probably drive more of these needed projects, while noting developers often argued infrastructure charges were making building harder.
The council’s current Labor opposition, and its lord mayoral candidate Tracey Price, has a platform for “urgent action” to develop its own housing strategy and lift density in areas near public transport, employment centres, major parks and shopping centres, while maintaining “suburban character”.
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The party also plans to audit all development applications which haven’t started in approved timeframes, and all vacant residentially zoned land to help owners activate it or consult the community about increasing density.
Such an audit would include investigating options to activate undeveloped medium and high-density residential-zoned land held by developers through measures such as built-to-rent incentives and “penalties for land banking”.
Fotheringham commended the idea of an audit in response to regular concerns about unused land. “If parcels of land that could be housing people are sitting there vacant over five years, it is reasonable to ask why,” he said.
While Labor’s pitch includes reviewing the City Plan to boost standards for development in flood-prone areas and restricting development in some, Price has told journalists this was more about ensuring drainage and infrastructure was appropriate.
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Labor also wants to reinstate a council flood buyback scheme worth $5 million each year (while the Greens have pitched one worth $20 million).
Fotheringham said he did not support buybacks as council initiatives, which were more suited to federal and state governments.
Greens
The Greens, largely via lord mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan, proposes to cap short-term accommodation use of entire homes to 45 days annually in purpose-built properties near major tourist attractions, business hubs or transport.
Significantly higher rates categories are pitched to make it cheaper for owners not to rent more than half the bedrooms in a property as short-stay accommodation for more than 45 days, and long-term rents would be capped at January 2023 levels for two years.
A similar levy is also proposed to be applied for investment properties, including land, left empty for more than six months “without good reason”. The combined effect of these and other proposals have seen the Greens set a target of pushing rents down 20 per cent in two years.
“The overwhelming evidence internationally is that is an incredibly blunt instrument when you freeze rents for large-scale areas – and Brisbane is a very large area – for long lengths of time.”
Michael Fotheringham
“That’s a great headline, it’s a great soundbite,” Fotheringham remarked of the target. But the devil was in the detail.
Fotheringham said he had not seen plans to discourage owners from choosing to rent out properties on a short-term basis work in other jurisdictions, or much evidence it would make a big difference (a point one recent state government-commissioned report also made).
A rent freeze, Fotheringham said, might have the unintended consequence of encouraging landlords to turn to the short-term rental market instead, but had been used in the US on some smaller categories of properties for six-month periods.
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The Greens also proposes planning code changes to allow greater use of granny flats and tiny homes, making height limits and other requirements binding and, like the LNP, also looking at car parking ratios to ensure new development did not boost congestion – something Fotheringham supported.
The party would also investigate acquiring private sites and developing them in partnership with community housing groups.
New developments on land with the two highest flood-risk categories would be banned, with renovation and raising of existing buildings allowed. Those in lower-risk but still flood-prone areas would need to be at least two metres above predicted flood levels, rather than 50 centimetres.
While there was merit in individual climate-sensitive design, Fotheringham said this was not the case with “flooded property” bans.
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Source Agencies
