Queensland government urges private entities to offer up spare land, property amid housing crisis

Annastacia Palaszczuk has taken the extraordinary step of calling on private entities to advise the Queensland government if they have any spare land or property to house people who cannot find accommodation.

The premier has also revealed Griffith University has come forward to offer 200 beds at empty student accommodation at a Brisbane campus to be repurposed as emergency housing.

The move has sparked the call for other organisations to do similar.

“We’re now asking Queenslanders out there – businesses, organisations, church groups – if you have any properties or land that can help us, we will work with you,” Palaszczuk said on Friday.

A roundtable on the housing shortage was held on Friday, with the premier announcing a crisis summit on the same subject will be held on October 20.

Palaszczuk said one of the roundtable participants has “identified 90 blocks of land across Queensland … with the view of putting some accommodation on those blocks of land”.

“We recognise that these are very complex issues but there have been excellent conversations today, looking at those unused buildings, also looking at provision of land,” she said.

“We also had discussions about pre-fabricated homes that can readily become available.”

She said another idea that will be “explored further” at the summit is a requirement that new real estate developments include a portion of properties to be used for social housing.

“In the UK, 25 per cent … has to be for affordable or social housing in a new development,” Palaszczuk said.

“That’s a great idea … we want to explore that further.”

Queensland’s waiting list for social housing exceeds 27,000 households.

Article source: 7news.com.au