The Growth Areas Team

The Growth Areas Team (GAT) was established in 2021 in response to growing demands for affordable land and housing in rapidly expanding parts of South East Queensland.

The team's remit is to help ‘unlock’ land to facilitate housing and well-planned community outcomes.  Many growth fronts in South East Queensland pose significant challenges that need to be overcome before housing can be approved and constructed. These challenges include ‘land fragmentation’ which requires developers to negotiate with multiple land owners to assemble parcels of land large enough to support development applications for urban development. These growth fronts also require land use and infrastructure planning to be in place to ensure that incremental approvals fit together over time to develop cohesive neighbourhoods and communities.  Due to demand pressures, many growth fronts in South East Queensland do not have the level of land use and infrastructure planning that is necessary to facilitate the conversion of these areas into well planned, liveable urban communities.

GAT has been established to help bring land to the market in these challenging growth fronts that exist across most local government areas in South East Queensland.

The team works in partnership with local governments and collaborates with state agencies, utility providers and the development industry on strategies to mobilise land supply and housing outcomes on a range of growth fronts.

Key projects the Growth Areas Team is working on:

• Growth Acceleration Fund (GAF) – following a state government budget commitment, GAT is establishing a new $50 million co-investment loan funding scheme to support the delivery of essential infrastructure in South East Queensland growth fronts.
• Priority Growth Areas legislation – GAT is working closely with the state planning agency on the development of legislative amendments to the Planning Act 2016 to establish new planning powers for mobilising outcomes in growth fronts.
• Caboolture West – GAT, in partnership with Moreton Bay Regional Council, is leading the overarching land use and infrastructure planning for Caboolture West.  This priority growth area is one of the largest in South East Queensland and will ultimately accommodate 30,000 new homes for 70,000 people.
• Underutilised urban footprint (UUF) – GAT is reviewing the development capacity of 75 UUF areas identified in the Shaping SEQ regional plan. This work will identify areas that require assistance to ‘unlock’ in the short term while providing up to date information for the ongoing monitoring of land supply availability in a rapidly growing region.
• Southern Redland Bay – Southern Redland Bay is expected to be home to more than 10,000 people with capacity for approximately 5,000 residential lots. In June 2021, the Deputy Premier made a Ministerial Infrastructure Designation for a wastewater treatment plant that will service the Southern Redland Bay growth area. The Queensland Government has also invested $15 million in loan funding from the Building Acceleration Fund to co-fund the $30 million wastewater treatment plant. The approval and funding assistance will ensure this essential piece of urban infrastructure is delivered in time to support the staged rollout of land and housing.