Queensland’s housing summit should consider redesigning suburbs with more medium density housing that people actually want to live in, an expert says.
More than 100 representatives from three levels of government, and from social services, charities, property, construction and industry bodies will take part in the Brisbane talks on Thursday.
Short-term rentals, migration, planning rules, land-use and social housing are set to be examined at the one-day summit.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has promised it won’t be a talk-fest, but will result in “key actions” to fix the crisis.
There’s a chronic residential property shortage with near flat vacancy rates, while there are than 25,000 households on the public housing waiting list.
Griffith University planning expert Dr Tony Matthews says the summit should think about ways to use existing space better.
Interstate migration isn’t easing, he says, and it’s increasingly difficult and expensive to release new land without encroaching on productive farmland or protected areas.
However, Greater Brisbane has one of the lowest population densities of any state capital, despite being Australia’s third most-populous city.
The average new residential lot in southeast Queensland was the size of a basketball court in 2021, according to the state government.
Dr Matthews says local governments, developers and builders should be delivering housing that’s closer to urban hubs or transport, and more aesthetically attractive to potential owner-occupiers.
“The way that they’re doing it right now is taking up all the green space with houses that are bumping up against each other, no trees, no public parks, none of that stuff,” Dr Matthews told AAP.
“If you contrast that with many European cities, they’ll have much higher density than Australian cities, they’ll also have far fewer high rises, and they’ll have more street level activity and fewer cars.”
However, Dr Matthews warned that previous attempts at increasing density had resulted in generic high rise apartments or townhouses that investors bought, but no one wanted to live in.
“That’s something that we need to look at – how can we redesign the suburbs to achieve density with people actually wanting to buy the homes and live there long term,” he said.
Dr Matthews said denser, aesthetically pleasing housing that increases social capital is also important for Queenslanders who dream of eventually owning a house on a quarter-acre block.
He said it would be an important mid-point between renting and owning a house in the suburbs.
“People need to be able to go from renting to purchasing eventually, ideally, otherwise they’ll never create intergenerational wealth,” Dr Matthews said.
“That’s the base of the property market in Australia that has, it has been protected furiously, studiously, so everybody should be entitled to have some crack at that eventually.”
© AAP 2022
