Brisbane City Council’s reworked “tall over sprawl” strategy is set to see create mini CBDs in suburbs, with apartments blocks soaring up to 30 storeys in a bid to ease the urgent lack of housing supply.
The council said with 1.5 million more people projected to call the river city home in the next 15 years, it had no choice but to introduce a “sky high” plan.
The draft concept allows for apartment buildings of 30 storeys in Carindale, up to 25 storeys in leafy Indooroopilly and 15 levels in the smaller northern hub of Nundah, all areas with shopping precincts and major transport hubs.
A rendering of Carindale as it looks now. / An artist’s impression of Carindale after re-zoning.
The council’s planning chair Adam Allan said currently 600 people were moving to Brisbane every week — with rental supply also at historic lows.
“We have to look at density in the right locations in order to provide housing that the city needs now and into the future,” he said.
“We also have had to be quite surgical and precise about where that density will go.
Brisbane City Councillor Adam Allan said the plan aims to provide housing “for everybody.” (ABC News: Luke Bowden)
“We need housing in lots of different ways; one bedroom units, studios, town houses, so what we are trying to do is with our planning is to set the city up in a way that provides housing for everybody.”
Report finds Brisbane house prices will increase almost 11 per cent this year
Brisbane is now the second least affordable city in the country for housing, according to Cotality, and is also one of the most expensive to build in, with many developers opting to build luxury properties in a bid to make ends meet.
Cr Allan said when it came to affordability, there were no easy answers.
“At the end of the day the council only has so many levers it can pull. We do not build housing but we do set a framework that allows industry to respond,” he said.
Million-dollar apartments
“To build a decent two bedroom apartment, the build costs alone would be something in the order of about $750,000 to $800,000, so that probably flows through to a sale price of $1 million or more,” he said.
“It is quite significant, so the challenge is how do you create affordable products in an environment where the cost to build is so expensive?
“That is typically where the state comes in and plays a role and provides social housing.”
Council said it could not dictate to developers what to build; just list what the city needed and hope some of them may fill the void.
A rendering of Indooroopilly before re-zoning. / An artist’s impression of Indooroopilly after re-zoning.
But according to Greens MP for Maiwar Michael Berkman the “end to urban sprawl” plan would fail low income earners due to a state government policy eschewing social housing mandates.
“We have a planning system at the moment that is rigged directly in favour of developers”, he said.
Developers in Brisbane prioritise ‘luxury’ apartments
“We have seen the state LNP government remove any existing mandates for affordable housing and they are doing all of this simply because it improves developer profits.
“It is going to do nothing to even touch the tip of the iceberg on the housing crisis.
“If we do not address this meaningfully now with the Olympics on the horizon it is going to be a housing catastrophe rather than an opportunity with genuine good housing legacy for Brisbane people”.
He was also concerned about a lack of infrastructure, such as schools, as more families call Brisbane home.
While new classrooms are being built in some schools; Mr Berkman said it was not enough to meet long term demand.
Michael Berkman says the plan will fail low income earners. (ABC News: Janelle Miles)
“These are problems driven by short-sightedness on the government’s behalf, they are always focused on the next election not on the next 10 years or 20 years or the next generation that come after that”.
Last month, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie made it clear he believed mandates did not work.
“The more you mandate the less houses get built, it doesn’t work”, he said.
Concerns over ‘very ugly’ developments
Dr Mark Limb, an urban planning expert from QUT, said he expected pushback from residents who live on the border of the newly-designated high-rise zones.
“It is understandable they will be facing long construction times, potential overshadowing and many, many new neighbours”, he said.
“They are legitimate concerns and people are often written off as NIMBYS [Not In My Backyard] but these are real concerns that affect real people’s lives.
“But cities do change.”
Dr Mark Limb is an urban planning expert from QUT. (ABC News: Lexy Hamilton-Smith)
Dr Limb said his biggest fear was of “very ugly” developments that did not make sense to the area and did not have free flowing, well integrated connections from low rises to new high-rise areas.
“If you have one by one developments you are highly likely to miss those kind of opportunities,” he said.
“But Brisbane is capped out in terms of suburban expansion, so going up is the only way to accommodate growth”.
No guarantee of affordability
Dr Limb said he was also concerned about the cost of new housing as it came onto the market.
“These plans do not guarantee affordability. The only way affordability comes from something like this is through the idea of increased supply and that somehow that supply is going to trickle down into the market and reduce prices.
“This is poorly evidenced as a concept, it is quite a crude concept.”
Indooroopilly would be home to high-rise apartments up to 25 storeys tall under the draft plan. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)
A ‘cookie cutter city’
Brisbane Residents United spokeswoman Elizabeth Handley said the region was turning into just another “cookie cutter city which could be anywhere in the world”.
“Instead of absolutely celebrating what we are which is a sub-tropical city and a beautiful city,” she said.
She said she was concerned about the lack of infrastructure in the new high-rise zones, such as transport, schools and green space.
“None of it is supplied with the increase in density. We have already seen this model at West End and South Brisbane,” she said.
“We have now managed to increase the density in those two areas so it is above Hong Kong.
“That is not sanity”.
The council has a swathe of 50 storey buildings set to go up in those areas, as part of its master plan for the city.
Elizabeth Handley at the Kenmore Bridge Club in the inner-city Brisbane electorate of Ryan, May 2022. (ABC News: Lexy Hamilton-Smith)
“The buildings will be too close together, not get adequate light and breezes, that will not deal with the climate they are being placed in,” Ms Handley said.
Residents across Brisbane will get to have their say when a one month consultation period begins on Friday, April 24.
But Ms Handley said she was sceptical that residents’ concerns would be considered.
School in ‘crisis’
The council would have to work with the state government to solve any infrastructure issues.
Education Queensland said it was already looking at providing extra classrooms in the new high-rise zones, using Indooroopilly State School as an example where work there would accommodate 280 students.
An artist impression of a new classroom at Indooroopilly State School. (Supplied)
But the school’s P&C Association president Maryanne Jardine said that would not be enough for the projected number of families moving into the area.
She said Indooroopilly State High School already had an overflow of students crammed into 32 demountable buildings on the oval, and a shortfall of 400 specialist classroom places for students.
“We are approaching 3000 students and have onsite specialist classrooms for about 2,600 students, so a 400 shortfall,” she said.
“A whole grade effectively is not catered for and we are growing, so there is currently no building plans to fix the gap.
Indooroopilly P&C president Maryanne Jardine said the high school is already dealing with an overflow of students. (Supplied)
“This week, people are talking about rationing fuel, well we’ve been rationing classrooms for years.
“It is a crisis now, what so is it going to look like in five years time when they start building 25-storey buildings, will we have more students lining up at the gate?”
Education Queensland maintained enrolments at the school were forecast to remain “relatively stable” in 2027 and 2028, before starting to decline and then stabilising at around 2,500 students.Â
Ms Jardine said Indooroopilly State High School uses 32 demountable classrooms. (Supplied)
More details on the suburban renewal program are available here.
Council claimed the “tall over sprawl” plan would protect the character of other suburbs, particularly the “timber and tin” traditional homes that reflect the city’s rich heritage.
Public consultation will end on May 25.