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Kooky
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About Kooky and Shaka →Queensland's program for turning idle government land into housing has nine sites in front of developers. Economic Development Queensland said on Friday 28 August that the sites cover more than 30 hectares and could deliver up to 5,754 homes.
The Land Activation Program was launched in February 2026. Its pipeline as a whole now stands at more than 8,000 anticipated homes, the agency says, which means roughly 2,250 of them sit on land that has not yet been offered to the market.
Where the nine sites are
The update names the nine sites without giving a size or a home count for each. Most of those details are on the public record all the same, in the Queensland Government media statements and agency notices that accompanied each release between February and July. Put side by side, they show how uneven the nine are.
| Site | Size | Homes | Latest published stage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montague Road, South Brisbane | 7.1 ha | 4,034 | Proponent selected, June |
| Banyo | 6.4 ha | 451 | Three partners selected |
| Varsity Lakes | 1.1 ha | 270 | Two partners named, July |
| Hervey Bay | 8.8 ha | Up to 175 | Released to market, July |
| Pimlico, Townsville | 4.5 ha | Up to 150 | Works commenced |
| Mango Hill | 1.5 ha | 117 | Construction timetable published, July |
| Wynnum West | 1.2 ha | Up to 55 | Registrations of interest |
| Turbot Street, Brisbane | 8,900 sqm | Not stated | Released to market |
| Highgate Hill | 1,126 sqm | Not stated | Registrations of interest |
Sources: Economic Development Queensland, 25 June, 22 July and 28 August 2026 and its site notices; Queensland Government media statements of 4 February and 21 July 2026.
One site dominates. Montague Road, a former glass recycling facility on the river at South Brisbane, accounts for 4,034 of the 5,754 homes, or about 70 per cent. The seven sites with a published figure add up to 5,252 homes, which leaves about 500 for the two that have none: Turbot Street, on the western edge of the Brisbane city centre, and a small riverfront lot at Highgate Hill where the agency's notice allows buildings of up to four storeys. That remainder is a subtraction from the agency's own total and not a figure it has published.
The areas tell the opposite story. Hervey Bay, the largest site by land at 8.8 hectares, is planned for up to 175 homes on part of a TAFE campus at Urraween. Montague Road is smaller and carries more than twenty times as many. The first is a regional subdivision with a new access road and flood mitigation, according to the media statement of 21 July. The second is a precinct of apartment towers 1.3 kilometres from the city centre.
Related readQueensland counts a record 50,000 homes under constructionWhat is planned at the main sites
Montague Road is the furthest advanced of the large sites on paper. Economic Development Queensland said on 25 June that Lendlease had been selected as the successful proponent, that the precinct would house about 7,600 residents when complete, and that a first stage of 796 homes is targeted for completion by 2031, the year before the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The same notice said the land becomes available for redevelopment in April 2027 and that the first stage includes 1.2 hectares of public space along the river.
Banyo is the case study the agency chose for its update. The former Energex depot was declared surplus to government needs in 2016, then decommissioned and demolished, and has been vacant since. The 6.4 hectare site is 13 kilometres from the Brisbane city centre, within walking distance of a train station and shops. It is now expected to deliver 451 homes for more than 800 people. When the program was launched on 3 February, the Queensland Government's media statement put the same site at up to 400 homes.
Three organisations will build there across three development lots, the agency says: AR Developments, Mission Australia Housing and Rockpool Residential Aged Care. Between them they are to deliver townhomes, key worker housing and a residential aged care facility.
Varsity Lakes shows the same pattern of a number rising between release and selection. The 1.1 hectare site opposite the Gold Coast suburb's train station was released on 8 April with a potential of up to 250 homes. On 22 July the Government said it would hold 270: 57 affordable apartments in a seven-storey building, with rents capped below 75 per cent of market rates for key workers, and about 213 apartments and townhouses for sale. BlueCHP is to deliver the affordable component and Red and Co Developments the rest, with construction running from early 2027 to late 2028 across the two projects.
Related readQueensland apartment approvals drop from 1,330 to 337 in AugustMango Hill, a 1.5 hectare site north of Brisbane, is planned for 117 homes, made up of 56 affordable apartments and 61 townhouses, with construction from late 2027 to late 2028. Both sites were previously held by the Department of Transport and Main Roads.
Wynnum West is the smallest of the sites with a number. The agency says the 1.2 hectare parcel has been vacant since 1981 and could take up to 55 homes for more than 150 people. It is close to a childcare centre, a train station, a shopping centre and the bay foreshore.
Pimlico, a 4.5 hectare former TAFE site in Townsville, was the first regional property in the program, announced on 4 February with a potential of up to 150 homes. It is the only one of the nine where the agency reports that works have commenced.
How the program works
The model is simple to describe. The State identifies land it owns and no longer needs, transfers it to Economic Development Queensland, settles the planning rules, and then runs a competitive process to choose a developer. The agency lists the tools it can bring to a site: infrastructure, demolition or decontamination, resolving environmental issues, changes to planning or zoning, land assembly and a transaction structure suited to the site.
Three conditions apply, according to the program's published criteria. The land must be owned by the Queensland Government or a related entity and be underutilised or surplus. It must be able to deliver or support housing, including as part of a mixed-use project. And it must need the agency's help to be developed.
Related readWhat the 2026-27 Queensland Budget puts toward new housing supplyIndustry can nominate land as well as bid for it. The agency undertakes to respond to a nomination within 30 business days. As at June it had received 191 submissions through its market portal, covering 23 local government areas and 26 landowning agencies. Wynnum West came through that route: the agency says several industry parties put the site forward.
Since the launch, the agency reports seven sites transferred to its ownership and four progressing through contracting.
- 3 February 2026The program is launched, with Banyo as the first site. Pimlico follows a day later.
- 29 May 2026A provisional Priority Development Area is declared over four South East Queensland precincts.
- 25 June 2026A proponent is selected for the Montague Road precinct at South Brisbane.
- 22 July 2026Home numbers and builders are announced for Varsity Lakes, with a timetable for Mango Hill.
- 28 August 2026The agency reports nine sites in market processes, for up to 5,754 homes.
The planning tool behind the pace
Three of the nine sites share a planning instrument that is specific to the State's development agency, and it explains how a site can go to tender before its rules have been through a full scheme process.
What a provisional Priority Development Area does
A provisional Priority Development Area lets the State put interim planning rules over a site at once and assess applications itself. Economic Development Queensland describes it as a temporary instrument that typically applies for up to three years.
The declaration of 29 May covered Banyo, Montague Road, Turbot Street and a 35,480 square metre site at Meadowbrook in Logan, which is not among the nine in market processes. The draft rules were open for public comment from 1 to 19 June. The final version, called a Provisional Land Use Plan, took effect on 24 August, four days before the agency's update. Applications in the four precincts are now assessed against it by the agency and not by the local council.
In its update the agency presents this as a way to give industry certainty early while still leaving room for community consultation.
What industry and the State have said
The Property Council of Australia welcomed the program when it was announced at one of its events on 3 February. In a release the next day it noted that the private sector had delivered more than 98 per cent of new homes in Queensland over the past decade, and it called for a comprehensive audit of underutilised government land.
The Queensland Government frames the program as a policy of using land or housing people on it: State land with no foreseeable operational use is to be released. Its media statement of 22 July said about 3,000 hectares had been identified and were under assessment.
The reason given for the program is a shortfall. Economic Development Queensland cites industry research forecasting a supply gap of about 74,000 homes in Queensland over the next five years, and it ties the program to the Government's commitment of one million homes by 2044. Against the first figure the nine sites are a contribution and not a solution, which the agency does not claim them to be.
What is and is not known
Up to 5,754 homes is a ceiling, and most of it rests on one riverside precinct whose first stage is due in 2031. The published construction dates for the smaller sites fall between early 2027 and late 2028.
The update does not say how many of the homes will be sold, how many rented, or how many offered below market rates. Where that split has been published, at Varsity Lakes and Mango Hill, affordable homes make up 113 of 387, a little under 30 per cent.
The agency says the program will keep evolving through 2026, with additional sites progressing to market. With seven sites transferred and four in contracting, the number to follow in its next update is how many of the nine have moved from a market process to a signed agreement.
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.
