This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
NEARLY 5,000 new homes are set to be fast-tracked through the Miles Queensland government’s new approvals pathway, headlined by a mammoth project at Robina on the Gold Coast, with more than a quarter to be allocated to affordable housing.
Planning Minister Meaghan Scanlon yesterday declared the Walker Group’s build-to-sell proposal for Robina – which will bring 2,750 homes – a state facilitated development (SFD), which expedites approvals for projects that align with the government’s focus on “affordable and well-located housing”.
Once declared by the Minister, applications though the process can be assessed within a minimum of 75 business days. Projects are required to get shovels in the ground within two years of approval.
“Remove the barriers, speed up approvals and you’ll fuel housing construction – that’s what industry told us, so that’s what we did,” Scanlon said.
“This process isn’t a free pass, though. Buildings are required to be substantially underway within two years.”
Walker Group’s $1.2 billion Lakesview project will be set across 73 hectares of former farmland on a floodplain.
Also declared as a pilot projects under the SFD pathway is a 45-home project at Wakerley.
In total, the 12 projects are expected to deliver 4,945 homes. Over 25% will be affordable housing.
Among the other proposals are a 525-home development in Indooroopilly and a 305-unit project at Milton, offering studio, one, two, and three-bedroom units just two-and-a-half kilometres from the Brisbane CBD.
The others are in Redland Bay, Forest Lake, Toowoomba, Lutwyche, Pallara, Tewantin, Noosa Heads and Woolloongabba, where a 435-home project over is planned near the Buranda public transport hub.
Last week the state government trumpeted the state’s biggest social and affordable housing project, which will deliver 490 homes to Cairns targeting over 55s, and which has also secured a major backing from Housing Australia and the ANZ.
Queenslanders will head to the polls on October 26th.
The Albanese government has just approved grants for more than 13,700 social and affordable homes across the country, marking the first deliveries of the HAFF.
