Brisbane Slashes High-Density Parking in Affordability Push

Car parking requirements will be cut at new inner city builds as part of the Brisbane City Council’s plans to boost supply and increase affordability for developers and buyers alike.

The requirements had already been slashed in the CBD and South Brisbane, with the council looking to extend that to to Fortitude Valley, Kangaroo Point, Milton and Newstead.

The current standard is one space per one-bedroom apartment, and more for bigger apartments—the change would mean this shifted to a maximum requirements starting at 0.5 of a space per one-bedroom apartment.

Providing a basement or podium-level car park for a high-rise development costs more than $100,000 per parking space, according to the Property Council of Australia.

The PCA and Urbis last month released the report On the Edge that revealed the “dire state” of Brisbane’s apartment pipeline.

Less than 2000 apartment were delivered between 2020 and 2023 with 4356 under construction. A quarter of those are build-to-rent projects. 

This was “headed for a cliff”, the report said, with a precited drop to 1500 in 2025, well short of the 7500 required each year to 2046 to meet the city's targets.

PCA Queensland executive director Jess Caire said delivering an apartment building had never been harder or more expensive.

“It is great to see Brisbane City Council listening to industry on ways to overcome some of the barriers to the delivery of new homes in our city,” Caire said.

“As seen in our report ... skyrocketing construction costs are pushing Brisbane’s apartment supply to the edge—this much needed cost relief will go a long way to boosting supply in Brisbane.”

Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinner said the measure was about preventing urban sprawl and keeping people close to employment centres.

“With single adult homes now making up one-in-three Brisbane households, we urgently need more homes, but not as many expensive car parking spaces,” Schrinner said.

“By removing mandatory minimum car parking requirements under our Inner-City Affordability Initiative we can put downward pressure on the price of building and buying a new apartment in those areas of Brisbane with great access to high-frequency public transport.”

The initiative will require changes to Brisbane’s City Plan, community consultation and approval from the State Government.

The latest measures are in addition to the Housing Supply Action Plan, introduced in August, which focused on fast-tracking the delivery of new homes by reducing infrastructure charges.

It was among Inner-City Affordability Initiative future directions hinted at last year.

Others included more green bridges, accessibility in Olympic precincts and integrating the CityGlider bus loop into precinct plans.

The terrestrial loop runs from West End Ferry to Teneriffe Ferry through Newstead, Fortitude Valley, Adelaide Street, the City and West End.