Brisbane's Sustainable Growth Strategy
Brisbane is a safe, vibrant, green and prosperous city valued for its friendly character and subtropical lifestyle. Our popularity and growth have created housing pressures and, as the region continues to grow, housing choice will need to reflect our changing communities.
As we plan for future growth, Brisbane City Council has prepared Brisbane's Sustainable Growth Strategy, our housing and homelessness strategy, outlining some of the important work we are undertaking – our priorities, initiatives and achievements – to facilitate housing supply and diversity within our region. The strategy also outlines our initiatives to address the challenges of population growth and changing housing needs.
The strategy aims to address the four key priorities identified for Brisbane.
- Housing supply for our growing and evolving city.
- Housing diversity, affordability and choice.
- Housing is in the right locations.
- Housing is sustainable and well designed to suit our subtropical lifestyle.
Council is focused on both current and future needs, so the region’s growth is sustainable, managed and planned, and residents have opportunities to live in a home and location that is right for them.
Download the strategy:
Brisbane’s Housing Supply Action Plan
As Brisbane continues to experience significant growth, Council is focused on ensuring residents have opportunities to live in a home and location that is right for them while still enjoying our enviable subtropical lifestyle.
Planning for well-designed housing with appropriate access to transport and facilities is critical to our city remaining an affordable and sustainable place to live. Urgent action is needed to help deliver more housing.
Brisbane's Housing Supply Action Plan will support the implementation of Brisbane's Sustainable Growth Strategy through targeted actions to address short-to-medium-term housing supply.
These actions formed part of Council's Housing Supply Statement in response to the draft ShapingSEQ 2023 Update. The Queensland Government released the final South East Queensland Regional Plan 2023 (ShapingSEQ 2023) in December 2023.
Actions will help lower construction costs through:
- reduced infrastructure charges
- new planning strategies
- fast-tracked assessment
- advocacy for Queensland and Australian planning reforms and support for more housing.
Brisbane Housing Supply Incentive Policy
An initiative of Brisbane’s Housing Supply Action Plan, Council is helping to get more homes built sooner by reducing the cost of constructing our city’s most needed developments. The Brisbane Housing Supply Incentive Policy offers reduced infrastructure charges and specialist fast-tracked assessment for eligible developments.
Until 1 April 2026, eligible developments in the High density residential, Principal centre, Major centre or Mixed use (Inner city) zones can apply for infrastructure charge reductions, including:
- 75% reduction for developments approved between 1 January 2022 and 31 August 2023
- 50% reduction for developments approved between 1 September 2023 and 30 June 2025
- 100% reduction for community housing providers as an ongoing and permanent initiative.
Learn more about the Brisbane Housing Supply Incentive Policy.
Housing choices for people at every stage of life
Our lifestyle and affordability attracted many new residents from other states during the coronavirus pandemic, with strong interstate migration expected to continue. Brisbane is projected to grow from a population of approximately 1.26 million people in 2021 to a city of 1.55 million by 2041. This equates to around 275 new residents calling Brisbane home each week.
Council is on track to facilitate almost 200,000 new homes to accommodate our population growth. However, with limited greenfield land available we must look for opportunities in established but underutilised areas, while ensuring:
- we have the right housing types and mix required to meet Brisbane’s current and future population needs
- housing is affordable
- our enviable lifestyle is protected and enhanced.
Council’s strategy facilitates housing supply by addressing competing demands and challenges, including:
- keeping Brisbane affordable for residents
- remaining an attractive city to invest and conduct business
- managing sustained population growth and changing communities
- planning for housing in locations that maximises city-shaping infrastructure
- delivering infrastructure to meet future population growth
- responding to housing needs during and after major events such as pandemics or floods
- establishing guidelines for well-designed liveable dwellings
- ensuring opportunities to develop housing types that support a range of life stages and abilities.
Responding to changing needs
Council will update this strategy, if necessary, once the latest population and supply data becomes available through the Queensland Government’s updated South East Queensland Regional Plan (ShapingSEQ) and Land Supply and Development Monitoring Report.
Council will continue to consult communities on proposals to ensure our growth is planned and maintains our valued lifestyles, while providing housing choices and access for people at every stage of life.
More information
For more information:
- email the project team
- phone Council on 07 3403 8888
- write to:
Strategic Planning (Brisbane's Sustainable Growth Strategy)
Brisbane City Council
GPO Box 1434
Brisbane Qld 4001.