Brisbane City Council will begin negotiations to buy back the homes of 16 residents impacted by February's devastating floods.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner announced this week he had received the first $50 million payment of state government funding for the Voluntary Home Buy-back Program (VHBP) in the last seven days.
The Queensland government has set the eligibility criteria and rules around the funding and will task local councils with distributing the cash settlements.
In Ipswich, 32 residents indicated they would like to have their home bought back by the government. That number was four in the Sunshine Coast Council area, 21 in Logan, 16 on the Fraser Coast and 25 in the Moreton Regional Council area.
Mr Schrinner said the council was working with the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) as part of the VHBP.
Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said official offers would be made next month with purchases finalised by Christmas.
"This is not a resumption process — this is a voluntary buyback scheme," he said.
"At this point in time we have been advised of 171 applications for buyback in the Brisbane City Council local government area.
"We have also been advised there are 16 properties that have been approved, and in coming days we will start moving forward to start the process."
Mr Schrinner said the council and property owners would come to an agreement on the price of property and the process would be completed "as quickly as possible".
Home owners in Windsor, Rocklea, Oxley, Clayfield, Herston, Boondall, Yeerongpilly, Archerfield and Carina will be among the first to take part in the scheme.
But Mr Schrinner warned the buyback program was not "some kind of silver bullet".
"If you start doing the maths and you think about how much it would cost to buy back a home, with market values what they are, you realise that equates to a significant amount of money," Mr Schrinner said.
"While some people have suggested ... the flood buyback is some kind of silver bullet, there were 23,000 properties in Brisbane that were flooded, yet the state government received 171 applications for buyback.
"So, you can tell by that response alone there are many people who were flooded who don't want us to buy back their home. This is a fraction of the properties that were flooded.
"This is just one suite of many responses to natural disaster and floods we can use"
Some families still waiting
By August 22, 2022, 4,510 affected home owners had registered interest in the $741 million state and federal government-backed Resilient Homes Fund, of which the VHBP was a part.
Of those, 4,141 were within the 39 eligible local government areas, a QRA spokeswoman said.
She said 1,338 home owners indicated an interest in raising their home, 1,614 indicated an interest in rebuilding and 686 said they had not decided.
More than 500 home owners across Queensland indicated an interest in the VHBP.
QRA said home assessments were underway for those who had registered, and valuations had commenced in Ipswich and Logan.
"Assessments are ongoing and are anticipated to be completed over the coming months," she said.
But Kate Duff says her family is barely surviving emotionally and have been waiting months to receive funding from the Resilient Homes Fund.
Their Oxley family home, a Queenslander, was on stumps 1.5 metres off the ground, but still 1.5 metres of water swept into their home in the February 2022 floods.
"We never got warning or evacuation notices, so we lost everything in the flood," she said.
They left their home the night before it flooded, with only a bag of clothes each, their 18-month-old child, a portable cot and their two dogs.
Everything else was destroyed.
The family had insurance and have applied for the Resilient Homes Fund to raise their home before rebuilding.
"It's coming to a point where we are now delaying the process of being rebuilt because we are waiting for anything from the Resilient Homes Fund," Ms Duff said.
She told ABC Radio Brisbane a Resilient Homes Fund officer had assessed their home in late June and they were verbally advised they would be approved for a raise but have not received funding.
"We signed our contract, we paid our deposit and we've now heard nothing back and we're about to lose approximately $60,000 just in raising costs," she said.
"I'm on to them every 10 business days, asking for answers.
"They've had six months to come up with a policy to administer this scheme and requirements and they haven't considered the urgency or some people's positions."
Ms Duff said she was disappointed there were now criteria and time frames "that were never published back in April".
"The applicants are completely blindsided; it's just appalling how it's being administered," she said.
Authority prioritising settled claims
QRA chief executive Brendan Moon says the organisation is undertaking "a massive task".
"We are working very, very closely with the insurance industry to work through this backlog," he said.
"We will ensure all of those people who have sought funding under this scheme are contacted as quickly as possible.
"We're working through some 2,500 floor-level surveys as we speak and we're issuing some 500 building assessment reports.
"Certainly, in the voluntary home buyback space as well, we are out there conducting valuations in the most impacted local council areas in southern Queensland.
"Energy and Public Works, who are leading the house raising and retrofitting are working very, very closely to prioritise those home owners who have claims settled and need to move forward now.
"We will be reaching out to Kate and also many of those other home owners that have had their homes assessed, and we'll be looking to prioritise those which we can.
"But this obviously relies on our ability to attract builders and contractors to commence those works and that's why we are working with the insurers and their panel of builders so that we can affect this."
Affected home owners can find out more information about registering for the program and the funding application process by visiting www.qld.gov.au/resilienthomes or calling 13 QGOV (13 74 68).
The QRA said more than $33 million in financial assistance had been provided to Queenslanders impacted by the 2021-22 flooding and severe weather, benefitting more than 106,400 people.
More than 43,000 calls had been made to the Community Recovery Hotline and more than 25,000 instances of psychological first aid have been provided.
If anyone is in need of support they can contact the Community Recovery Hotline on 1800 173 349. If anyone is in need of housing assistance, they should contact their local Housing Service Centre or 13 QGOV.
