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An extra $100 million to support social and affordable housing will be included in next week’s state budget, Queensland’s treasurer has announced, as the Crisafulli government defends its move to scrap affordable housing from state-facilitated developments.
Queensland Treasurer David Janetzki, also the minister for home ownership, revealed the funding boost at a housing affordability summit on Wednesday, calling it essential to the government’s plans to deliver thousands more social homes in coming years.
“The former government ran at 509 social and community homes a year,” Janetzki said. “We’re targeting four times that.”
The extra $100 million builds on $5.6 billion committed in last year’s budget, and will be spread over the next four years.
Queensland Housing Minister Sam O’Connor said the $5.7 billion total would help the government meet its target of 2000 social and community homes each year, with a goal of 53,500 properties by 2044.
“We’ve got 6500 under contract with construction right now, so the 2000 figure per year is my target, and we’ll be getting as close as we possibly can to that this year,” O’Connor said.
There are currently 26,500 Queenslanders on the state’s social housing wait list, which peaked in October.
Despite demand outstripping current projections, O’Connor defended the government’s decision to remove affordable housing mandates from state-supported developments.
“In terms of those mandates, they were doing the opposite of what the former government wanted them to do … [they] were decreasing affordability,” he said.
“On the whole, they were impacting the viability of projects, and they were impacting the delivery of housing supply.”
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie appeared unfazed when questioned on Monday about his decision to ditch the mandates and write to developers to remove affordable housing from development applications on the Gold Coast and Brisbane.
“There was evidence put into the Queensland Productivity Commission, and the government accepted that recommendation from the productivity commission report, [that] said, you’re better off partnering with the private sector [and] letting the market determine it,” Bleijie said.
“You’ll get far better outcomes and opportunities for people.
“We are pulling every lever [available] to the state government to deliver housing, because if we have more supply in the market, it will drive down the costs of building homes and affordability, and as I’ve said a million times … availability equals affordability.”
The median house price in Brisbane reached $1.17 million this year, making the Queensland capital the second most expensive city in Australia.
There is no single definition of affordable housing, but Queensland’s Housing Department has previously said: “Housing is generally considered to be affordable for low to moderate income households where they spend no more than 30 per cent of gross household income on housing costs.”
Further announcements targeting housing affordability and investment are expected when the Crisafulli government delivers its second state budget on June 23.
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