Homeowners slugged more than $100k by councils to rezone property despite state’s emergency proposal

Homeowners are being slugged more than $100,000 to rezone properties to allow them to rent out a room or granny flat, even as a housing crisis pushes people into homelessness.

Homeowners looking to change the zoning of their property to rent out a room are being charged more than $100,000 by councils despite an emergency state government proposal to free up rental space during the state’s housing crisis, a leaked department letter has claimed.

The Department of Planning criticised local governments for spoiling a plan to create new housing stock through renting spare rooms and granny flats on the market by slapping property owners with “excessive if not prohibitive” charges.

The state government also accused councils of applying “unreasonably high” fees on residents to deliberately block new housing supply.

In the leaked letter, seen by The Courier-Mail, State Planner Tess Pickering pleaded with the Local Government Association of Queensland and Council of Mayors SEQ to support the government to stamp out the behaviour.

But both bodies hit back, with COMSEQ declaring it was “ridiculous” to blame housing issues on council fees and LGAQ chief executive Alison Smith said the government failed to consult with councils before adopting “major changes”.

Local Government Association CEO Alison Smith. Picture: Glenn Campbell

In response to a campaign by The Courier-Mail to address the housing crisis, the Palaszczuk government adopted an urgent change to planning laws in September to allow homeowners to lease granny flats on the rental market.

Ms Pickering wrote last week: “Since the amendments to the regulation came into effect, the department has heard from industry that infrastructure charges being levied for small-scale rooming accommodation and secondary dwellings by some local governments are excessive, if not prohibitive, and limiting investment in this type of housing.”

She said the department had been told of a sample of councils slapping infrastructure fees of up to $110,000 on homeowners to change the use of a five-bedroom house for the purpose of rooming accommodation – despite there being no changes to the size or structure of the property.

The department also accused some councils of structuring development assessment fees to be “unreasonably high and not reflective of the cost to the local government”.

But a COMSEQ spokeswoman said it was “ridiculous to suggest council fees are causing the housing crisis when the state’s impact on the cost of buying a home includes stamp duty, land tax and a growing list of new requirements which only make housing more unaffordable”.

Meanwhile, Ms Smith said “poorly considered tinkering … will not solve the housing crisis”.

“Properly consulting with councils before making major changes ensures impacts on local communities are known and accounted for and would have avoided the unintended consequences of the rushed changes to secondary dwellings and rooming accommodation rules,” she said.