Approval of Zero-Parking Project Puts Brisbane’s Housing Shift to the Test

“Do you want fries with that?” In a fast-food drive-thru queue, the question leaves room to simply say no. But in South-East Queensland’s apartment market, town planner Natalie Rayment argues, buyers have long been denied such a choice. Not for a side of fries but a far more costly add-on—a car park, which is built into the price of an apartment whether they need one or not. “It’s like, not even asking people the question … [but just] making everyone buy a car park or two or three,” Rayment says. “That has been the policy thinking for the past 10 years.” But she says the approval of a 25-storey inner-west Brisbane project with 397 apartments but not a single car park for its residents—and just 20 visitor spaces—marks “quite a pendulum shift” in that thinking. “It definitely gives a pretty strong indication that we’re all about housing supply and reducing the cost of delivering housing right now,” the Therefor Group managing director says. ▲ Town planner Natalie Rayment and a rendering of the approved 25-storey Milton project. The greenlighting of GH Properties’ proposed build-to-rent tower at Milton stands as the city’s boldest zero-parking gambit in high-density residential development. Whether the model works in practice and at such a scale is the big question. Nevertheless, the approval has put the cost and future of car-dependent housing squarely in the spotlight and within the broader debate over how the River City accommodates its future growth. More significantly—given the region’s housing shortage— if it proves less parking can pave the way for more new homes, it may provide the first glimpse of a pivotal shift into a different way of living in Brisbane. “I think there’s a lot of indicators that car parking is now recognised as a huge burdensome cost on housing delivery,” Rayment says. “Everyone seems to have finally cottoned on to the fact that digging basements adds a lot of costs to projects. “Eight years ago when I started having these conversations, we were saying $50,000 to $80,000 [for a basement parking space per apartment] and I think since then that’s absolutely doubled.” ▲ A rendering of the 25-storey inner-west Brisbane project of 397 apartments and not a single car park for its residents. The expense is also not just limited to building the space, she says. Basement excavation can stretch project timelines—adding months and potentially up to a year. That time has a price for developers—tying up capital and increasing holding costs—and can flow through to the homes they are trying to deliver. Such is the stark economics of the car parking equation, it has helped change the policy landscape, Rayment says. She cites Brisbane’s reduced parking standards and a softening of the former resistance to podium parking, which can avoid some of the expense of digging basements. “We’ve definitely seen a big shift. It’s no longer just about public amenity and what the neighbours think, but actually how much cost it’s adding and making it very difficult to develop and buy homes.” A direction we had to take Brisbane-based Colliers Engineering &amp; Design national director of traffic and transportation Brian Camilleri agrees. “It’s the direction we had to head,” he says. “We’re becoming a global city, with the Olympics coming and population growth … we need to cover every aspect of the housing market, particularly in a housing crisis. “And car parking is probably the biggest killer in terms of a project feasibility in a residential development.” Camilleri says in contrast to the zero-parking model of GH Properties’ Milton project, South-East Queensland’s booming luxury residential market over the past few years has been providing up to four car parking spaces per unit. “So we need that full mix … and I think in a lot of areas we should just let the market dictate, rather than having parking requirements in the planning scheme. And if someone wants to develop something with no car parks, so be it—they’ll attract the people that don't require a car.” Milton has a case to make for that approach, he says. The site is next to Milton train station, with Roma Street—set to become a major transport interchange—just one stop away. The bikeway along the Brisbane River and CityCat ferry services are just a stone’s throw away, and there is a growing range of micro transport options, including scooters. “It's certainly a location where it’s got every opportunity to succeed.” But he stresses that not even a site with such transport convenience provides the solution for every trip, particularly in a region where many people travel long distances. Camilleri says low-car living needs a menu of alternatives: bike and scooter storage, public transport connections, and car-share options for the occasions when a car is useful. As well, on-street parking policy has to match the development. Without controls, residents and visitors could simply shift the parking pressure onto nearby streets. ▲ Colliers’ Brian Camilleri says Brisbane is “becoming a global city ... we need to cover every aspect of the housing market, particularly in a housing crisis”. “There’s going to be a lot of eyes on it.” Camilleri says of the precedent-setting Milton development, which is slated for 3243sq m site at 20 Walsh Street and 10 Crombie Street. But it won’t be until long after the first residents move in that the project’s performance can be judged. “The test won’t be in the first six months,” he says. “The test will be in three years.” No matter, he strongly believes it will provide the catalyst for a development shift to “minimal parking”. “We’ve got to do it. If we’re going to fix the housing crisis, we’ve got to do things like this. “It’s a real cultural change becoming a global city and if you look at New York and cities like that people there aren’t even bloody thinking of owning a car.” Rayment adds: “This is what we need to change. We need to have some radical shifts so that we can become a city that can deal with this”. Her view is that changing people’s behaviour such as car dependency requires changing the conditions or policy that shape it. “You’ve got to make it uncomfortable to own a car to reduce the number of people owning a car,” she says, arguing that this can also build demand for better public transport, bikeways and people walking into the city. “And unless we do something different it will always be.”

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Phil Bartsch
Thu 22 Oct 26

Approval of Zero-Parking Project Puts Brisbane’s Housing Shift to the Test

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