New 75-unit housing project unveiled in Toowoomba to tackle housing crisis

Work has begun on a 75-unit development near Toowoomba's CBD that will combine social, affordable and market housing to tackle the region's critical housing shortage.

Left to Right - Trevor Watts MP, Minister Sam O'Connor and Mayor Geoff McDonald

Work has started on a 75-unit project aimed at reducing Toowoomba’s ballooning waitlist for social and affordable housing.

The development – built by McNab and managed by BHC – will include a mix of 25 social, 25 affordable and 25 market homes situated near the CBD.

BHC’s acting chief executive, Jamie Muchall, said affordable housing was essential to the success of the broader community and a critical safety net.

“Affordable housing for essential workers is particularly, in context of the current housing market, more important than ever,” Mr Muchall said.

Acting CEO of BHC - Jamie Muchall

Mr Muchall said the development would include five studios, 60 one-bedroom apartments and 10 two-bedroom apartments.

“Combining a mix of social, affordable and market housing enables us to create a vibrant and inclusive community of students, seniors, retail workers, hospital staff, educators and young families who can thrive side-by-side,” he said.

“Well located, affordable housing means residents can stop worrying about how they will afford to live their lives and instead focus on living and thriving in their community.”

Data released by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland showed vacancy rates in Toowoomba had remained unchanged at 0.5 per cent.

Minister for Housing and Public Works Sam O’Connor said all the state government could do to control vacancy rates is increase supply.

“We’re making sure that housing can come out of the ground faster, that every possible barrier is being removed to that,” Mr O’Connor said.

Mr O’Connor said the government was gearing the whole system towards projects like this to rectify having the lowest proportion of community housing in Australia.

“We’ve got 498 social affordable homes that are under contract or construction across this broader region and to have 75 here in this project alone with 25 of them being market homes is really really special.”

Minister for Housing and Public Works - Sam O'Connor

Mr O’Connor said Toowoomba and the Darling Downs had a waitlist of about 1800 applications for social housing and the government will crack down on eligibility checks.

“We’ve had instances of property owners and people on high incomes living in social housing, that’s crazy when you’ve got people on the waitlist,” he said.

“We’re working through at the moment to make sure more vulnerable people can have a place they call home.”

Mr O’Connor said the official timeline of the development will conclude mid-2027.

But McNab owner Michael McNab said the project would be finished by December 2026.