The "last vacant lot" on the northern side of the Brisbane River is getting a new suburb. Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie announced on Sunday that the Northshore Hamilton former industrial site will be parcelled off to five developers, who between them will build almost 2,200 homes across 13 towers, along with a 50-bed hotel, a supermarket and shops, the ABC reports. None of it will be affordable housing.
That is not an accident of design but a matter of policy. Bleijie — who is also the minister for state development, infrastructure and planning — dumped the former Labor government's affordable housing mandate from the state facilitated development program last year, arguing mandates "stopped development". His theory of the project is trickle-down by postcode: homeowners in the outer suburbs will downsize to riverfront units, freeing up houses further out. "You need all forms of housing, that's why we are not discriminating on the types of housing we build across the state," he said. "We are in a housing crisis still, we inherited a housing crisis from the Labor government, and we are doing everything we can — we are pulling every lever possible."
From athletes village to open market
The long-vacant 6.1 hectare site carries some history: under Labor it was tipped to become the athletes village for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The first residents are now expected to move in in 2031, and Bleijie said the towers aren't "required" to be finished ahead of the Games — "but having them done before 2032 would be great". What the land actually sold for is unclear; the deputy premier would say only that it went for "market value".
The local member is delighted. "It is the last vacant space and it's the great opportunity Brisbane has been crying out for," said Member for Clayfield Tim Nicholls, calling it "the last major development site available" near the CBD and "close to all the things people need and want".
The 9 per cent problem
The announcement landed a day after realestate.com.au data showed national housing affordability at its lowest level on record — the ABC reported a household on the median income of about $125,000 a year can now afford just 12 per cent of all homes. In Queensland, the figure is 9 per cent.
That timing handed the opposition its line of attack. "Queensland is officially the most unaffordable it's ever been and Jarrod Bleijie's response is to build luxury homes for the wealthy," said Queensland Labor leader Steven Miles, calling the government "out of touch". Between the mandate-free towers and the record-low affordability numbers, Northshore Hamilton is now the clearest test yet of the government's bet: that building anything, anywhere, for anyone eventually frees up a home for everyone.