Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner is calling on the Queensland government to guarantee 30 per cent of the apartments set to be built at Cross River Rail's Woolloongabba station precinct will be designated as social and affordable housing.
Concepts for the precinct already include making the site a "vibrant mixed-use hub linking commercial, residential and retail development", with a land bridge to span Main Street to provide access to the Gabba.
Cr Schrinner said essential workers should be given priority access to the affordable housing, which would be near hospitals and schools.
He also called for a pedestrian, cycling and e-mobility link to the Woolloongabba bikeway and a limit on car spaces in the precinct.
Cr Schrinner said with property prices increasing and rental properties hard to find, it was clear that the government needed to find ways to provide more social and affordable housing.
"My proposal will deliver about 600 social and affordable apartments just two kilometres from the Brisbane CBD on a site that will have both a train and bus station as well as a dedicated Brisbane Metro station just a short distance away," he said.
"Currently, the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority is proposing to allow only 15 per cent of the the estimated 2,000 apartments to be built on this site to be social and affordable — and even that's not guaranteed.
"Given the average house in the Gabba is now more than $1 million, reserving affordable housing for essential workers like nurses and teachers who may work nearby should be considered."
In 2020 former Cross River Rail minister Jackie Trad promised that if Labor was re-elected 50 per cent of the space would be reserved for public parkland and that the development would include affordable housing for frontline workers such as teachers and nurses.
That election promise was reaffirmed by Transport Minister Mark Bailey last year when the government expanded the original 10-hectare site to include the Gabba and land east of Main Street to 21 hectares in order to allow for additional planning for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
South Brisbane Greens MP Amy McMahon and Gabba ward Greens councillor Jonathan Sri have also long campaigned for the site to include public park space and social and affordable housing.
Cr Sri said while he commended the Mayor's stance on increasing social or affordable housing, 30 per cent did not go far enough.
"Remember, currently, the social housing waiting list in Queensland is 50,000 people, so when we've got inner-city, publicly owned land that's ready to be redeveloped, we shouldn't be selling off 70 per cent of that to the private sector.
"What the Mayor is calling for certainly seems better than what the state government has initially put on the table ... but what the Mayor is calling for doesn't go anywhere near far enough."
Social housing will be investigated
A government spokesperson said investigations into the "appropriate supply of social or affordable housing" would be undertaken over the next 10 months as part of the planning for the precinct.
The spokesperson said the government was delivering social and affordable housing in other precincts too.
"For example, the Roma Street Cross River Rail [priority development area], just across the river, requires 10 per cent of residential development to be provided as social or affordable housing.
"The Palaszczuk government's $2.9 billion housing investment is the largest concentrated investment in social housing in Queensland's history.
"This investment will deliver 7,400 new social and affordable housing commencements across Queensland by June 30, 2025."
