February Policies and Advocacy Update
Welcome to our new monthly update, where we link you the latest property and construction policies and advocacy news!
Announcement of a new Growth Areas Delivery Team to tackle South-East Queensland’s population boom and land supply issue.
The soaring market in South-East Queensland from a significant rise in migration has created an accelerated demand for housing. Coupled with increasing risk of accessibility issues, this announcement aims to mitigate potential issues through increased investment into affordable housing and a strong focus on the supporting infrastructure.
Objectives for the team include:
Bringing land in the underutilised urban footprint to market quicker
Ensuring that quarterly local government infrastructure reporting outlines spend and delivery for larger councils
Attention Given to the Land Supply Crisis
A surging demand for land and the consequential impacts of supply limits have resulted in a new commitment to “rethinking” land supply between Tweed Heads and Noosa. The forum consisted of more than 300 individuals and decision makers to analyse solutions, focussed on options that can be fast-tracked by government.
Reports that “South-east Queensland’s ‘200-kilometre city’ is predicted to grow by 1.5 million to 5 million in 20 years, making it about the same population as Sydney today” further validating the need for additional considerations.
Body Corporate regulatory changes come into effect 1 March 2021
The Queensland Government has officially rolled out changes to the body corporate Standard Module regulation as of 1 March 2021.
Changes and impacts to our industry include:
Provision of documents at first AGM are required. While some documents are relatively simple to provide, others may need to be created by the builder or construction partner. However, the obligation to provide the documents remains the legal requirement of the developer, presenting a risk if they are not correctly made or kept. Penalties apply for those who fail to meet the requirements and can be enforced.
Required defect inspections are now necessary. It’s now an obligation for a body corporate to propose a motion to carry out a professional defect inspection and report. UDIA expects most buildings will be professionally inspected at year 2.