Brisbane’s building slowdown leaves a billion-dollar hole in budget

Fees and charges from developers and builders – necessary to finance some Brisbane City Council operations – will fall almost $500 million both this year and next, the council budget shows.

Collectively, the loss is $932 million over two years, which is significantly more than the $127 million Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner flagged last month amid declining construction activity.

Developer contributions to Brisbane City Council will fall by $932 million over the next two years.Credit: Dan Peled / Brisbane Times

The $4 billion budget – down from $4.3 billion last year – shows developer contributions this year at $1.66 billion – $489 million down on the $2.133 billion that had been anticipated.

Revenue from developers will remain low in 2025-26, when council now expects to receive $443 million less than forecast. It will not return to 2023 revenue levels until 2027-28.

“This is a real issue,” Schrinner said ahead of the budget, adding “builders are not building”.

The budget included a rate rise of 3.8 per cent on average, or $102 per year, which was higher than last year.

It allocated $248 million to finalise the first two Brisbane Metro lines, and $195 million for new bus services to complement the Metro.

Opposition leader Jared Cassidy said the rising operating costs associated with the Metro required funds to be shifted away from suburban projects.

“We are seeing $480 million being ripped out of the suburbs of Brisbane. And that comes on top of the $400 million of cuts that we saw six months ago,” Cassidy said.

“So, in six months, the ratepayers and renters of Brisbane are seeing almost $1 billion in suburban investment ripped away from them.”

Council opposition leader Jared Cassidy, with deputy Lucy Collier, questioned cuts to suburban projects.Credit: Tony Moore

Cassidy questioned why the budget did not provide individual figures for medium-scale suburban transport projects, cumulatively referred to as the Suburban Works Program and with a total budget of $313.5 million.

Brisbane City Council’s finance committee chair, Fiona Cunningham, said the projects were “incorporated into the financial statements, just like what occurs at other councils and in state and federal budgets”.

“We are not going to be lectured about financial management by the Green/Labor coalition of chaos, which made $3.5 billion worth of big-spending promises during the election but had no clue how to pay for them,” Cunningham said.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Bart Mellish acknowledged council’s belief that it should share about $800 million in Metro fare revenue.

Schrinner said council thought the money “should come back to the project”, prompting Mellish to reply: “Negotiations are progressing positively with Brisbane City Council.”