Greenfields ‘too costly’ to open up
NO new significant housing developments are likely to be approved and built in the fastgrowing city because the Gold Coast City Council says it’s unaffordable.
The city has less than two years of available greenfield development space left, a population increasing by 15,000 annually and a development industry unable to built enough houses or units to keep up.
While the council is investigating western suburbs of Gaven North and Highland Park as growth areas, planning boss Cr Cameron Caldwell says more is needed but council can’t afford to do it unless something big changes.
“New greenfield development opportunities need to be environmentally and economically responsible and council could not pursue large-scale greenfield land release without significant financial and planning support from the state government,” he said.
“Our approach to planning for growth has been to encourage infill development, to maintain a compact urban form, and protect the green behind the gold by ensuring development predominantly occurs in already urbanised areas.
“Residents need to be located near infrastructure, employment and amenity to enjoy the true Gold Coast life.
“Our financial capacity to deliver growth-related infrastructure is directly impacted by our ability to recover developer contributions in a framework determined by the state government.”
The council last year revealed it had identified a pair of western suburbs – Highland Park and Gaven North – for potential development which would allow hundreds of new homes to be built.
However, these sites are
largely already serviced by existing infrastructure.
Experts have tipped any development would focus on highdensity townhouses to accommodate the city’s growing population, expected to top one million people by 2041.
The state government insists it’s working closely with the council to manage the city’s growth, pointing to more than $1.5bn given to local governments for infrastructure delivery.
A spokeswoman for Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the government was committed to working “with councils and industry to understand where housing is most needed and to plan to meet that need, including through collaboration on ongoing improvements to the Growth Monitoring program and identifying priorities for an update of the SEQ Regional Plan”.
“The current infrastructure framework includes a cap on the financial contributions a local government can levy on a development, to limit the impacts on housing affordability,” he said.
“As our population grows rapidly, it is imperative that this growth is managed appropriately, with planning in place for the long term.
“The Gold Coast City Council alone has been allocated more than $25m to help deliver nine projects which have created or supported more than 370 local jobs so far.”
However, Kirsty ChessherBrown, the CEO of the Urban
Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) – the development industry’s peak body – said Gold Coasters were already pouring enough money into the economy through infrastructure charges.
“New home buyers on the Gold Coast have paid large sums for new infrastructure for the community, via ‘developer contributions’ aka infrastructure charges which is the amount per lot council charges new residents to build new roads, parks, and other infrastructure,” she said.
“In the past five years, the amount of money new residents have prepaid council for new infrastructure has totalled around $700 million in infrastructure charges being paid by developers. This is off the back of around 26,302 new dwellings approved.
“Additionally $8,661,336 in trunk infrastructure items have been provided in 2020-21 financial year alone on the Gold Coast.
“New homebuyer fees and charges are not the only contribution to the Gold Coast community and economy, with the development industry making a significant local economic contribution annually, including: $7.9m to the gross regional product, $1.9m in wages and salaries and 11.4 per cent of direct regional employment.”
The city’s housing crisis has only worsened as the rate of tower development on the coastal spine slows on the back of skyrocketing construction costs. It has sparked predictions that one in five high-rises currently before council will never be built.
The bulk of the city’s remaining housing stock is in the northern suburbs of Coomera and Pimpama, as well as the giant $1.5bn Skyridge estate at Worongary which will ultimately be home to 10,000 people.
However, Skyridge, which is under construction, will take 15 years to deliver.