Construction of government-owned dwellings and better use of council and state land
How it helps:
More supply and more affordable housing options for the community could be available if the State Government allowed residential use of their land, existing dwellings and new dwellings.
There are plenty of historic examples of council being a property speculator, taking the lead with commercial ventures that could fast-track outcomes and onsell to the private market. Most recently Council took this approach with the Sunshine Coast Airport and the Maroochydore CBD. Initially, the Maroochydore CBD was unviable for a developer but incredibly valuable for our community, so the Council created an outcome that made it viable for a developer. While this was great to fast track these projects, the challenge with both these developments now well progressed is that they now create more demand for housing due to jobs created.
There is great opportunity for Council and State Government to undertake similar projects to help fast track housing supply and help alleviate the crisis conditions we are currently faced with. We don’t believe Council should be involved in social housing but that doesn't mean they can’t deliver the infrastructure themselves or work in Public Private Partnership (PPP) with others or support a private enterprise to deliver an outcome that reduces costs as or for the developer. These reduced costs would be able to be passed down to the end users resulting in affordable homes for owner occupiers and affordable rentals. Concurrently doing everything else we mention above, this solution would enable them to pull forward as much supply as possible.
The challenges faced:
Being able to unlock or repurpose Council and Government land depends on how the land was purchased, how it’s funded, legislative impacts and the current land use. Council will require support from the State and from industry, and the solution requires a solid understanding of commercial outcomes and how to deliver that.
The biggest challenge to seeing this solution play out is the self-serving people in government roles operating in a self preservation mode who won’t change. They’ll do what they can get away with and aren’t motivated to change the models and inputs they’re using for planning despite all industry experts demonstrating that they are wrong. We’re dealing with politicians pushing out misinformation, and dancing around smoke and mirrors, appearing to do something rather than making the effort to do the best thing that will solve everything.
What needs to be done:
The Property Council of Australia (PCA) in 2017 outlined the following recommendations to the State Government and we believe these solutions are still valid and should be made a top priority and the government should not wait another 5 years before acting.
Unlocking government land - As the largest landholder in Queensland, the State Government has the capacity to swiftly increase both social and affordable housing stock across the state, by releasing government land with incentives and/or requirements. This would not require a commitment of large amounts of capital expenditure and would see effective utilisation of public assets. The Advancing our Cities and Regions Strategy provides a framework for this to occur.
Utilising infrastructure reserves - In addition to surplus land, the Queensland Government holds land acquired in anticipation of future infrastructure requirements. Other jurisdictions have successfully adopted measures to make use of this land for crisis and temporary accommodation, an approach that should be explored here in Queensland. With an increasing variety of moveable, demountable and ‘tiny home’ dwellings in production, temporary crisis accommodation can be quickly provided in areas at the time of need, and when necessary, moved to areas of new need.
PPP arrangements should be put in place to fast track and make viable more development and housing opportunities where councils can kick-start projects and remove some of the commercial barriers to then enable private companies to deliver the outcomes required.
Video/Link/resources
https://www.sunshinecoastnews.com.au/2022/08/09/state-government-owned-properties-left-empty/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-01/plan-to-solve-housing-crisis/101287662