Affordable Housing - Inclusionary Zoning

Here is some of my Advocacy, speeches and submissions on Affordable Housing & Inclusionary Zoning:

Precinct planning changes: 16/09/25, 04/11/25, 10/02/26, 17/03/26

Citywide city plan changes: 17/02/26, 10/12/25

Other chambers speeches: 04/02/25, 13/09/24

Submissions: LMR amendments, short stay local law

Brisbane has been in a housing crisis for so long that it’s almost clichè. But it’s kept getting worse.

In the Brisbane City Council area, there are 11,481 people on the social housing waitlist as of December 2025, and that number has been soaring. They need around 7,000 new public or community housing dwellings that Brisbane doesn’t have.

Social Housing Waitlist Counts in Brisbane City Council¹

But these stark numbers don’t even tell the whole story.

In the Brisbane City Council area, the average rental household is paying a third of their income in rent.² The average pensioner couple pays over half their pension in rent. Tens of thousands of people are just one or two rent rises away from the social housing waitlist.

Snapshot of Brisbane’s rental affordability for the average rental household²

The State government isn’t building enough public or community housing to keep up with population growth.³

And clearly, just raising height limits, and giving developers handouts isn’t bringing down the cost of housing. Brisbane overtook Melbourne and Canberra to have the second-highest house and unit prices on this continent. This price explosion occurred at the same time that the current LNP administration of the Council gave big developers a tax cut, and raised height limits to up to 90 storeys in the Kurilpa TLPI. 

Developer handouts don’t stop the prices rising, they just give developers bigger profits.

These developers are still landbanking and speculating, and trickling new luxury units onto the market - what’s stopping them?

Clearly Brisbane’s current approach of leaving it to the state government and for-profit market isn’t working. We need genuinely affordable housing. So how do we get it? How do we house everybody?

I’m proposing that this Council needs mandatory inclusionary zoning.

Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning

I’m proposing that Brisbane City Council conditions every new multiple-dwelling development in Brisbane with 10 or more dwellings on providing 25% of the dwellings to public or community housing providers.

And if they can’t find a housing provider to take the dwelling, they should give it to the publicly owned Brisbane Housing Company.

For every new apartment block that’s finished, a few more struggling households would find a home that they can afford.

Mandating inclusionary zoning would ensure that as neighbourhoods densify, there will be hundreds of new public and community dwellings, for all kinds of households.

It would give homelessness support groups like Micah Projects the dwellings to support people out of homelessness through housing-first programs. And it would ensure genuinely affordable homes for the thousands of people on the social housing waitlist, or who are struggling to make rent.

Cities worldwide already require inclusionary zoning. 20% of London’s entire housing stock is social, public, or affordable housing. 

In France, most cities require 20-25% inclusionary zoning in all new development. In Paris, 22% of all homes are public or community housing, compared to Brisbane’s 3.5%. The city has so much social housing that many middle-income households live in these homes, which ensures that private rents are kept down by competing with a cheap public or community housing alternative.

Closer to home, the City of Sydney has a type of inclusionary zoning scheme, under their affordable housing program. Every development in the area is charged a levy, and redevelopments for rezoned lots are charged a ‘value uplift charge’, which is given to community housing providers for community housing projects in the City of Sydney.

How would this work?

It might seem strange, but this is actually pretty straightforward for Brisbane City Council to do. 

Councils in Queensland can require developments to have an ‘affordable housing component’, which can be public or community housing. Brisbane City Council already sets several requirements for multiple dwellings in the City Plan, so this code could add a requirement for public and/or community housing components.

Brisbane is in the midst of upzoning various areas across this city. For example, this amendment would gently increase height limits across thousands of lots zoned for low-medium density housing. This amendment would increase height limits around Indooroopilly, Carindale, and Nundah. This one would do the same around the Mt Gravatt part of Logan Road. Mandatory inclusionary zoning ensures that genuinely affordable public and community housing is part of this new construction - not just luxury units for the rich. It makes sure that everybody can live in every neighbourhood.

And best of all, Brisbane City Council co-owns a community housing provider with the state government: Brisbane Housing Company.

Brisbane Housing Company is entirely publicly owned. It already owns and manages over 2100 dwellings, and is building hundreds more.⁴ It’s one of Queensland’s biggest community housing providers, and with Council help, it can grow to manage these homes.

By growing Brisbane Housing Company, the public will get an even bigger say about housing in our city. How much it should cost. What quality we should expect. How we will accommodate each other.

It’s clear that a for-profit housing market is failing ordinary people. 

We need to build homes for people, not for profit.

(1) Queensland Government. n.d. Social Housing Register. https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/social-housing-register/

(2) SGS Economics & Planning. (n.d.). 2025 Rental Affordability Index. Retrieved June 3, 2026, from https://sgsep.com.au/projects/rental-affordability-index

(3) Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2025). Housing Assistance in Australia. Retrieved June 3, 2026, from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/housing-assistance/housing-assistance-in-australia/contents/social-housing-dwellings

(4) Brisbane Housing Company. (2025). 2024-2025 Impact Report. Retrieved June 3, 2026, from https://bhcl.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/BHC-Impact-Report-2024-25-web.pdf