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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →The Queensland Government says 1,500 community homes have now been delivered on land owned by churches and charities, in under two years. The figure comes from a media statement published on Monday 12 October 2026 by Sam O'Connor, the Minister for Housing and Public Works, who said almost 5,000 more are underway across the state.
The election commitment was 500 homes on this kind of land. The milestone sits inside a longer plan: 10,000 community homes on church and charity-owned land, built with the community housing sector, and 53,500 social and community homes across Queensland by 2044. For renters on low incomes, the mechanics matter: who manages these homes, who can live in them and how the rent is set.
Queensland Government media statement, Minister for Housing and Public Works, 12 October 2026.
What the government announced
The statement holds two layers of figures. The first is the headline: 1,500 community homes delivered on church and charity-owned land in under two years, against a commitment of 500. Almost 5,000 more homes on that kind of land are underway, according to the statement, toward the 10,000 goal.
The second layer is the wider social and affordable housing programme, which covers every kind of site, not only church and charity land. Here the statement says more than 7,000 social and affordable homes are under construction or contracted, and that 11,400 social and community homes have been delivered or are underway toward the 53,500 target for 2044. Almost 70 per cent of the social and affordable homes in the pipeline are being delivered with registered community housing providers.
The statement also carries the government's political case. The minister attributed falls in housing approvals and rises in rents and in the social housing register to the former Labor government, and compared an average of 509 social and community homes a year under that government with an expected average of 2,000 a year from 2028. Those are the government's own comparisons and its own forecast, made in a ministerial statement; they are reported here as such.
Related readSydney and Canberra loosen while Brisbane's rental stock stays thinThe minister said the government had made church and charity land easier to unlock, cut red tape and created a permanent pathway for providers to propose projects. "We didn't make an empty promise and hope for the best," he said in the statement.
How church and charity land was opened up
Church and charity land often sits in what planning schemes call the Community facilities zone, a zone meant for places of worship, community halls and similar uses.
The planning change came through the Planning Amendment Regulation (No. 2) 2024, which amended the Planning Regulation 2017. The Deputy Premier and Planning Minister announced it in a media statement on 20 December 2024, saying the changes were already in effect. The planning department's page on unlocking church and charity-owned land describes three parts to it.
First, non-profit and charitable organisations registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission can use the Ministerial Infrastructure Designation process, a pathway where the Planning Minister assesses the proposal instead of the local council. The December 2024 statement said new guidance for social and affordable housing proposals under this pathway cut technical reporting and enabled a streamlined three-month assessment.
Second, the purpose statement of the state-wide Community facilities zone now treats housing that is 100 per cent affordable, on faith-based and charity-owned land, as consistent with the zone.
Third, existing dwellings on that land, such as caretaker residences and presbyteries, can be repurposed as housing without a development application.
A second step followed on 30 July 2025, when the government released a Model Code for community housing in the Community facilities zone. It was co-designed with the Local Government Association of Queensland and drafted with a working group of 14 councils. The code is opt-in: councils can adopt it as written, adopt it with local changes, or leave it aside, and the state allows its adoption through a streamlined amendment to the council's planning scheme.
Related readCotality measures Brisbane's vacancy rate at 2.1% in SeptemberThe December 2024 statement framed the planning change as support for the commitment of 10,000 homes on church and charity land, with 500 of them to be built within two years. The 12 October statement now reports that first figure at 1,500.
The always-open pipeline for providers
Planning is one instrument. Funding and delivery go through a second one: the Queensland Community Housing Investment Pipeline, usually shortened to Q-CHIP.
Q-CHIP was announced on 2 September 2025 as a procurement process that stays open all year, unlike time-limited grant rounds. Registered community housing providers can propose projects at any time, including projects built with partners such as developers, builders, local governments, institutional investors and superannuation funds. The Department of Housing and Public Works page on the pipeline, last updated on 7 August 2026, says it funds both new construction and turnkey acquisitions, where ownership or control passes to a provider once a building is finished.
To take part, an organisation must be a registered community housing provider, be in the process of registering, or partner with one as lead. It must prioritise social homes. The department's process runs in four stages: a pre-submission form, a pre-submission discussion (by which point the proponent should have a site, a concept and a conversation started with the landowner), an expression of interest if invited, and then a full procurement submission.
The 12 October statement included comments from Julie Saunders, chief executive of the Community Housing Industry Association Queensland, the peak body for the sector. She said providers had taken up the opportunities created by the pipeline and other reforms, and that projects were moving from concept to construction faster. "Unlocking church and charity-owned land has created new pathways for community housing delivery," she said.
Related readCotality review puts Brisbane's median rent at $734, third among capitalsCommunity housing and public housing: the difference
Social housing in Queensland is mainly of two kinds, and the announcement is about the second.
Public housing is owned and managed by the state. Community housing is delivered by community organisations or local governments, known as community housing providers, according to the Queensland Government's business pages on the sector.
The scale is set out on the department's dashboard. At 31 August 2026, Queensland counted 78,820 social and community homes, a total that includes public housing, community housing and headleases. Of those, 18,512 were managed by community housing providers and other not-for-profit entities, and 56,120 households lived in public homes.
A provider that wants to deliver a funded social housing service in Queensland must be registered under the National Regulatory System for Community Housing, subject to exemptions set by the Housing Regulation 2026. It is the national scheme that registers, monitors and regulates providers. It runs in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, on the basis of the Community Housing Providers National Law. Providers are placed in one of three tiers according to the scale and scope of what they do, with a different level of regulatory oversight for each tier, and the registrars of the participating jurisdictions manage the national register of providers together.
Who gets a home, and what the rent is
For a household on the waiting list, the question is how a home built on church land and run by a community provider is let. The rules are set out in the department's Social Housing Policy 2026 for funded community housing providers, which took effect on 12 September 2026. Under it, a provider must allocate homes funded for general social housing to eligible applicants from the Housing Register, the same register used for public housing, with exceptions such as nominations approved in writing by a state delegate. The Queensland Government's guidance for applicants describes the register as a record of eligible applications for public and community housing, assessed against one set of criteria covering citizenship and residency, assets, income and housing need.
Related readCPI rents hold at 3.6 per cent as housing leads Brisbane inflationThe policy also caps the rent a funded provider can charge. Some of the homes in the pipeline are social homes and some are affordable homes for low to moderate incomes, and the cap differs between the two.
| Type of tenancy | Income-based cap | Market-based cap |
|---|---|---|
| General social housing | 25% of assessable household income, plus 100% of Rent Assistance | Market rent |
| Affordable housing | Up to 30% of gross household income, plus Rent Assistance | 74.9% of market rent |
Whichever amount is lower applies. Rent Assistance means the Commonwealth Rent Assistance entitlement. Source: Department of Housing and Public Works.
The rule in public housing is close to the first line. The Queensland Government's public housing page says tenants pay 25 per cent of their total household's assessable income.
The policy also says some providers set the maximum rent at 74.9 per cent of market rent where that is needed to keep their charitable status under Australian Taxation Office requirements. And the market rent used as the ceiling must be valued by an independent, qualified professional every four years, with a desktop review in the years between.
One register for public and community homes
Homes funded as general social housing go to eligible applicants from the Housing Register. Offers depend on urgency of need, the areas chosen and the homes available.
The policy sets income limits for general social housing of $609 a week gross for a single person and $755 a week for a couple, and annual limits for affordable housing of $80,000 for one adult and $103,145 for two.
The register and the wider target
The homes are meant to reduce the number of households waiting. The dashboard's most recent figure puts the social housing register at 24,454 active households, or 41,995 people, at 31 August 2026. Between 1 July and 31 August 2026, 1,019 new households were assisted into social housing.
The department's dashboard, OpenHome, also shows progress on the larger target. Of the 53,500 social and community homes planned by 2044, 4,672 had been delivered by 31 August 2026 under the dashboard's count, with 7,018 more in construction or under contract. The minister's statement of 12 October used its own measure, 11,400 delivered or underway, and the two are counted differently, so they are not added together here.
Funding is the other part of the picture. A ministerial statement of 17 June 2026 described a four-year capital programme of $5.725 billion for social and community housing in the 2026-27 Budget, the record $5.7 billion budget the 12 October statement refers to, with ongoing baseline funding of $500 million a year from 2029-30.
What comes next
The statement gives no date for the 10,000-home goal on church and charity land, and no breakdown of the 1,500 homes by region or provider. What it does give is the next stage: almost 5,000 homes on that land already underway.
The Q-CHIP process remains open all year, so new proposals from providers and landowners can enter the pipeline at any time, and the opt-in Model Code leaves each council to decide whether to write the church and charity housing pathway into its own planning scheme.
For tenants, the practical point is unchanged. Homes funded as general social housing on church and charity land are allocated from the same Housing Register, and let under the same rent caps, as other homes run by funded community providers.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
