But the region could be ready-equipped with a hidden weapon to help it overcome the crisis swamping the rest of the nation.

Town planner Stephen Motti, Director of Brazier Motti, has been at the forefront of North Queensland’s development for three decades.

At a recent presentation to Townsville City Council regarding the proposed development of a 350-lot residential facility for over-50s, he said the city was in ‘urgent need’ of greater housing supply.

But he thinks Townsville is right at the forefront of a fix, with an abundance of the most highly-prized natural resource in the lower hemisphere at the moment; land.

“One thing is clear and that is that Townsville is part of the national solution for housing,” Mr Motti said.

“One thing we do have is land, and it’s relatively unencumbered compared to other places in Queensland and across the country.

“That puts us in a position where we can grow with smart planning and infrastructure. We can deliver allotments sooner and better than other locations.”

The challenge for Townsville, as he sees it, will be ensuring there’s a follow-through on supply that provides enough varied pricing options for a wide variety of homeowners.

“We have to ensure there is choice, supply and availability,” Mr Motti said.

“Supply is important, we know that Townsville does have availability and land capable of providing for housing, the key for us will be ensuring not only that there’s infrastructure in place and that we’re forward-thinking in terms of how infrastructure is delivered, but also that we’re doing what we can to attract people.

“We have a pipeline of jobs available, but we have to be aware that we are in a competitive environment, and there’ll obviously be people in the southeast, with the focus on what is to occur there - they might not be looking to move.

“But our availability and lifestyle is an opportunity for them to move, so along with any housing strategy we probably also need to consider a settlement strategy - looking at whatever levers we need to pull in order to attract people to the north.

“Beyond your liveability and availability of housing we could look at tax benefits or zone rebates for moving to the north, we’re seeing it already with some of the visa requirements at the moment, there’s a whole area of work that will probably help being people up here.”

Overall, Mr Motti said the outlook was on the upward trend, with a push across all levels of government to take action and spark private investment coming at the perfect time.

“The development cycle does have peaks and troughs, of course, but conditions at the moment are really creating a ‘perfect storm’ where we’ve got a supply and availability of jobs, we’re seeing the will at all levels of government to treat the problem and Townsville has land that is available and capable of being subdivided,” Mr Motti said.

“Townsville should be positioning itself as a significant player in assisting, particularly with some of the state’s pressure. You can really get bang for your buck up here in terms of investment.”

One of the lingering after effects of the Covid-19 pandemic could also play out in Townsville’s favour, with investors now spreading their money around.

“It’s important we create the conditions where private investors and businesses want to invest in Townsville,” Mr Motti said.

“Covid was the great leveller - it showed that capital was fairly transportable, and also global, every city and town across the world was out there chasing dollars and jobs - we have to stay competitive here as well.”

Recently, financial analysts KPMG predicted that Townsville would benefit from 18,000 jobs across the next five years as shovels hit the ground and workers flock in to work on big-ticket projects like CopperString, mining projects, the Townsville University Hospital expansion and more.

But housing remains the linchpin focus with the potential for it to cruel regional growth if supply can’t meet demand.

KPMG Townsville partner David Minuzzo echoed Mr Motti’s focus on the upcoming demand for workers in the southeast, and that the north needs to be ready to lure staff away.

“With the Brisbane Olympics coming up, we’re going to be pulling from the same pool,” he said.

“There are three factors affecting housing growth. Land availability, construction worker availability, and bank approvals.”

Premier David Crisafulli’s state government has pointed to their flagship Residential Activation Fund as one of their key measures that will aid regional centres like Townsville in getting the right amount of housing.

The fund provides staged funding from a $2bn pool for projects that will open up unused land for residential development by fast-tracking things like water supply, sewerage, power installation and road development.

In short, it’s primed and targeted at the land parcels Mr Motti has already earmarked as North Queensland’s biggest asset in the current work.

“We need to fix housing right across the board, and one of the first things that Deputy Premier did, and again, along with this project, we’ve already gone out to market for the Residential Activation Fund,” Mr Crisafulli said recently while talking with the Townsville Bulletin.

“So the moment the budget is handed down, there will be $500 million in that, and the Deputy Premier is already doing those assessments so money can go out the door straight away. We just didn’t want the clunkiness of waiting for months for that to occur.

“There will be money given to be able to unlock that opportunity, to get more people into houses. That’s front and centre, one of the biggest bottlenecks that’s facing us. The other thing is productivity, and if we get productivity back onto those job sites, we will be able to build those projects.”

Master Builders Queensland Regional Manager Mark Vaughan said there’d been a positive response when he’d approached the state government about providing greater incentives for workers to make the switch to the regions.
“Since they came into office last year, we’ve really felt we’ve had the state government’s ear. They know there is more work to be done, and I’m confident to say the enthusiasm for change is there,” Mr Vaughan said following recent discussions.

“The Deputy Premier was keen to hear what I had to say on the impacts of the Best Practice Industry Conditions (BPIC) – which they had already frozen, and we’re calling on them to scrap altogether to help improve productivity and drive down costs on state government worksites. Minister O’Connor has flagged that the Productivity Commission will consider BPIC in its review of our industry, which is underway – and this is something I’ll be raising when the Commissioner comes to Townsville in June.

”Minister O’Connor and I also discussed the changes in the National Construction Code 2022, where they are adding cost and restricting consumer choice they need to be made voluntary, and ending the Project Trust Account regime which just adds to unnecessarily to the work of building – and I also raised that we need the tender for the Townsville University Hospital expansion to happen soon, so we can actually get started on building those extra 165 beds, day surgery centre, operating theatres and rehab therapy unit our region needs.”

Maidment Group Managing Director Glen Maidment said the RAF would allow them to get to work sooner and build more houses in North Queensland.

“This funding helps unlock land and infrastructure that will allow us to deliver substantial new housing stock, including affordable and diverse living options,” Mr Maidment said.

Matusik Property Insights analyst Michael Matusik projected that Townsville’s population could soar to 240,000 over the next decade.

“Combine this with existing demand, there is likely to be some 9,700 new dwellings needed to be built in the next 5 years. The only way to do this is to unlock opportunity for land supply & minimise the cost of infrastructure requirements developers are forced carry,” Mr Matusik said.

“Anything and everything needs to be done to support developers and builders who have the

capacity, and a desire, to contribute to the delivery of land and housing supply in Townsville. The region is so well placed to accelerate in the coming years, but it can only do so if there are enough affordable housing options to cater for demand.”

The latest PropTrack data puts regional house prices at a peak, with house prices in regional Australia prices rising by 0.25 per-cent across the month of May, with annual growth of 5.19 per-cent.

That growth figure puts regional prices at a level 65 per-cent higher than they were five years ago, across the nation.
This year’s Future Townsville series, in partnership with S.Kidman, Bravus, Port of Townsville, Aurizon, Queensland Resources Council and Sun Metals, will examine the once-in-a-generation opportunities for trade and investment in this city.