$3.5m building boost

Incentives scheme to unlock 500 new homes

A NEW $3.5m incentives scheme to get 500 already approved dwellings across Toowoomba finally built has been given the green light by the council.

In a bid to improve supply in the strangled Toowoomba housing market, councillors voted unanimously at Wednesday’s committee meetings for the “temporary development incentives” policy affecting medium-density housing.

Under the policy, developers with existing approvals for units could be entitled to 40 per cent off their current infrastructure charges, while new approvals could be entitled to 70 per cent.

Duplexes could also receive a 30 per cent discount.

The policy has been capped at $3.5m, with developers needing to apply to be part of the scheme and meet key criteria.

According to the report by infrastructure charges co-ordinator Kate Rosier, an audit of the upcoming housing pipeline in Toowoomba showed about 80 approvals for about 500 new units had not actually been built.

Many of these approvals came during the unit boom nearly a decade ago, which was spurred on by council incentives at the time.

Planning and development portfolio leader, Councillor Bill Cahill told his colleagues it was hoped the plan would stimulate medium-density growth.

“The purpose was to see as much as possible the mediumdensity development materialise on the ground, that’s why we did it that way,” Mr Cahill said.

It comes just a few months after the council endorsed a new temporary local planning instrument (TLPI) to treat 11 parcels of land across Toowoomba zoned for “emerging communities” as low-density residential.

Toowoomba branch president of the Urban Developers Institute of Australia, Edward Hodge, said he looked forward to seeing if the new policy would be taken up.

“We are supportive of the incentive and the other broad measures to address housing supply and rental availability,” Mr Hodge said.

“In addition to the incentives and the recent TLPI, it’s important that we continue to work constructively with council on the upcoming scheme amendment to identify new greenfield sites and improve the medium-density code.”