“Including social and affordable housing targets in PDAs is not red tape, it’s good planning,” she said.
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She said affordable housing requirements were an important lever for the state government to force the private sector to contribute to their “ambitious” plan of building 53,500 social housing dwellings by 2044.
“The government has an ability to intervene in the market and ensure the private sector plays their part, and through this action they’ve taken that lever away.”
McVeigh said QCOSS was consulted by the government before the requirements were scrapped.
“We have consistently provided feedback to both the former government and the current government that the inclusion of social and affordable housing targets in PDAs is really important,” she said.
Bleijie said the government was still very committed to social housing, despite today’s announcement.
The priority development area as shown on a map of Woolloongabba in Brisbane.Credit: Queensland government
“The Crisafulli government has already invested a record $5.6 billion in new and social community housing as well as the $2 billion Residential Activation Fund to help deliver on the ambitious target of one million homes by 2044 to ease Labor’s housing crisis,” he said.
Dr Lyndall Bryant, a property economics expert at QUT, said the move to scrap the requirement did not make sense.
“I couldn’t believe that in the middle of a housing crisis, the state government would actually remove the provisioning for social and affordable housing for land so well located to services and meets all the criteria for housing a diverse population,” she said.
Bryant said the private sector could not be relied on to provide social housing, citing the more than 50,000 people on Queensland’s social housing waiting list.
“If you think about the reason why social housing is difficult to build, it’s because they are low-income tenants. Their rent is a portion of their income and their income is usually the dole,” she said.
Opposition housing spokeswoman Meaghan Scanlon said because the state-owned entity Economic Development Queensland was involved, social and affordable housing should have to be included.
“Our public developer should have a public responsibility to deliver outcomes like social and affordable housing,” she said.
