Crisafulli government announces Palm Island Home Ownership Scheme

For community leaders on Palm Island, the announcement from the state government of a home ownership scheme is welcome news that has been a long-time coming, allowing residents to finally become homeowners.

Palm Island Mayor Alf Lacey. Picture: Evan Morgan

For community of Palm Island, the chance to own their own homes is a long time coming.

The state government has announced a new initiative that will allow Palm Islanders to buy their social housing homes under the Palm Island Home Ownership Scheme, with more than 300 such properties in the community.

Hoping to unlock home ownership for Indigenous communities, the Crisafulli government announced on Wednesday a rent-to-buy model has been launched.

The model allows residents to purchase their government-owned social housing home by entering into an agreement with the Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council.

After the completion of a payment plan, a 99-year home ownership lease will be registered and the ownership of the house will be transferred over the tenant.

Minister for Housing and Public Works Sam O'Connor with Townsville MPs Adam Baillie, Natalie Marr and Janelle Poole. Picture: Nikita McGuire

Having advocated for many decades for residents of Palm Island to be able purchase their own homes, chief executive of the Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council Michael Bissell said

the announcement of the scheme is “life-changing”.

“This is the first time in over 100 years that people are able to own their own home on Palm Island,” he said.

“We know there’s a lot of people on the island that want, like anyone else, to have their own home.”

“There are an awful lot of people on Palm Island with very good jobs whether its in the hospital, in the schools, in the primary health centre, in the Telstra call centre and working for council.”

Having conducted several community consultations over the years, the most recent in 2022, Mr Bissell said they are “between 40 and 50” residents that will sign up to private home ownership immediately now the scheme has been announced.

“We hope over 12 months that we might get to the 100 mark and then we hope over the next five to 10 years that we’ll get to 300 people, which is about 60 per cent of the housing volume on Palm Island,” he said.

Mr Bissell said with many barriers in law and policies in place that prevent Aboriginal people across the country from owning their own home, it was encouraging to have a scheme designed specifically for the Palm Island community.

Queensland’s overall home ownership rate is 64 per cent, but this drops to only 38 per cent for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander households.

In August last year, the former state Labor government endorsed the home ownership scheme plan, which was on the council’s election wishlist.

Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council CEO Michael Bissell, former Townsville MP Scott Stewart and former Palm Island Mayor Mislam Sam.

With only 1.4 per cent of residents on Palm Island owning their home, Minister for Housing and Public Works Sam O’Connor said the “historic” agreement will be managed and run by the council.

“The Mayor (Alf Lacey) has been working on that for quite some time,” he said.

“I have written to every other mayor of First Nations communities and I have invited them to meet with the senior levels of our department to make sure that we can see what model would work for them.”

“For Palm Island this was the model that the council wanted to embark on.”

In regards to possible bank defaults and whether safeguards would be put in place on taking back possession of properties, Mr O’Connor said it was something the government would be figuring out.

“From our side of things, it’ll be the 10 years that we expect those loans to be repaid over. Our part of the deal as well will be that our department, through QBuild, will keep managing those properties,” he said.

“We will make sure that part of the agreement is that (the houses) get up to good condition before they transfer to private ownerships, but that is certainly one of the risks that we are considering and we need to make sure there are guardrails in place.”

“There are benefits to home ownership, but there’s also responsibilities and challenges that we need to make sure people have adequate protections from.”

Mr O’Connor also advised subsidised modular homes would also be delivered to the island in coming weeks.

“Through these initiatives, we aim to provide ongoing opportunities for Indigenous businesses and support a pipeline of skilled First Nations workers,” he said.

“Unlocking home ownership is a practical, tangible way of supporting aspiration and we’re determined to help more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people achieve this dream.”

Originally published as Crisafulli government announces Palm Island Home Ownership Scheme