Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has announced that the State Government will ensure a whole lot more land is available for development before the end of 2008. The goal is to have a lot more homes built in south-east Queensland over the next few years, and hopefully that will help to ease the pressure on supply that has been driving up house prices.
“As a result – the Government will remove any regulatory hurdles slowing the development process on 12 sites:
• Maroochydore, Meridian Plains, on the Sunshine Coast;
• Market Drive and North Lakes in Moreton Bay;
• Upper Kedron and Rochedale in Brisbane;
• Coomera and Helensvale on the Gold Coast;
• Springfield and Redbank Plains in Ipswich; and
• Kinross Road and South-East Thornlands in Redlands.“This will make it possible for the industry to begin the development process of these sites by Christmas.”
– Premier Anna Bligh
What they want to do is cut the red tape, and I don’t need to tell you that there’s a lot of that. My wife and I submitted a request to add a carport to the front of our house in December last year, and we’re still waiting for approval from our local council. This is nothing too huge, and it’s a fairly basic proposal with full support of our neighbours, but it still takes over 5 months to get through council. No wonder the developers need to add on so many costs to buyers as a result of the bureaucracy they have to go through!
What do you think? Will this mass release of new housing sites have any impact on housing affordability in Queensland? And is there enough infrastructure in place to cope?
[…] issue of supply and demand leads us to the Queensland State Government’s recent promise to fast-track the freeing up of enough new land to supply another 150,000 dwellings to south-east Queen…. Obviously it will take time for these developments to be built, but when that begins, what impact […]