Half a car space per unit: Brisbane to slash inner-city car park conditions

The Labor council opposition is set to back Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s proposal to reduce car park requirements for more high-density inner-city developments when it is put to a vote in City Hall on Tuesday.

The council plans to extend the “city core” to parts of East Brisbane, Kangaroo Point and Woolloongabba, while the “city frame” would extend to parts of East Brisbane, Herston, Highgate Hill, Red Hill, Toowong, West End and Woolloongabba.

New high-density developments in the city core would have a maximum of 0.5 car spaces per one-bedroom, one per two-bedroom, 1.5 per three-bedroom and two for four or more bedroom units.

Boundaries of the city core (maroon) and city frame (mustard).Credit: Brisbane City Council

In the city frame, there would be a minimum of 0.9 spaces per one bedroom, 1.1 per two bedroom and 1.3 for three or more bedroom units.

Council opposition leader Jared Cassidy said Labor would support any policy that would reduce the cost of housing, while maintaining a “decent lifestyle” for Brisbane residents.

But the LNP will face questions about its ability to ensure the savings are passed on to consumers.

“We supported Schrinner’s initial proposal, but want assurances this expanded area will tick all the boxes,” Cassidy said.

“We share the concerns that some planning experts have with who really gets the benefit of reducing car parking spaces. There must be some mechanism that ensures the savings made during construction are actually passed onto people seeking a home, rather than developers.”

Once passed through the council, the changes will have to be approved by the state government.

Schrinner said extending the measure, introduced last year, would help provide more affordable housing in areas well-serviced by public transport.

“Car parking can be a prohibitively expensive addition to the cost of constructing new apartment buildings,” he said.

“... Kick-starting the construction of affordable homes is the right thing to do with the limited levers our council has to help solve the housing crisis.”

The council claimed underground or podium-level car parks within new Brisbane high-rise apartment buildings could “easily exceed $100,000 per parking space”.

It was not the first lever pulled by the Schrinner administration at City Hall.

In 2023, Schrinner introduced his council’s Brisbane Housing Supply Action Plan, which applied discounts of up to 75 per cent on infrastructure charges for residential buildings in high-density areas.