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About Kooky and Shaka →Work on the first homes has started in the North Harbour Priority Development Area at Burpengary East, in the City of Moreton Bay. A Queensland Government media statement issued on Tuesday 28 July 2026 says works to support the construction of the first 249 homes are under way in the area's Early Release Area, less than twelve months after the area was declared.
More than 3,700 homes are planned across the whole Priority Development Area, according to the statement.
From declaration to first works in a year
North Harbour was declared a Priority Development Area on 30 July 2025, according to Economic Development Queensland, the State agency that plans and assesses development in such areas. The Queensland Government statement issued that day described 3,700 homes, a 400-berth marina and nearly 2,000 jobs, and put a value of $2.74 billion on the North Harbour masterplan. The Urban Developer, reporting on 4 August 2025, added tourism and hotel precincts to that list.
The announcement this week gives a first measure of what has happened since.
| Measure | July 2025 | July 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Priority Development Area declared | Works for first homes under way |
| Early stage | About 200 homes to be fast-tracked | 249 homes in the first neighbourhood |
| Whole area | 3,700 homes planned | More than 3,700 homes planned |
| Jobs and economic effect | Nearly 2,000 jobs; $456 million a year | Almost 2,000 jobs; $456 million |
Queensland Government media statements, 30 July 2025 and 28 July 2026. Job and economic figures are project estimates.
The 249 homes are about 7 per cent of the 3,700 planned. They are also somewhat more than the roughly 200 that the early stage was said to hold when the area was declared.
The statement describes what the first neighbourhood will contain. The Early Release Area is to include terraces and detached homes. Across the wider area the mix is to extend to three and four-bedroom villas, detached houses and apartments.
How the early stage was possible
The speed comes from the way a Priority Development Area is set up under the Economic Development Act 2012. On declaration, the State puts an interim land use plan in place, and Economic Development Queensland becomes the assessing authority in place of the council. Applications are assessed against the interim plan while the permanent development scheme for the whole area is still being prepared.
Related readQueensland apartment approvals drop from 1,330 to 337 in AugustAt North Harbour the interim plan divides the land in two, according to the agency's project page. Precinct 1 is residential. It allows about 200 homes for early delivery, and development applications can be lodged there now. Precinct 2 is an investigation area covering the remainder of the site, where only existing, interim and temporary uses are allowed until the scheme is finished.
- 30 July 2025Priority Development Area declared. The interim land use plan takes effect.
- August 2025 to July 2026Integrated land use and infrastructure planning phase.
- July 2026Works begin for the first 249 homes in the Early Release Area.
- August to September 2026Planned public notification of the proposed development scheme.
- January 2027Planned finalisation of the scheme, 18 months from declaration.
The dates for the planning steps come from Economic Development Queensland's consultation page for the area. That page says the interim plan is anticipated to be in effect for 18 months, and that the proposed scheme will be on public display for a minimum of 30 business days. It also records a community information session held at Morayfield Community Hall on 7 May 2026.
For a buyer, that means the first homes at North Harbour are being delivered under an interim plan, while the layout of the marina, the tourism precincts and the later residential stages is still to be confirmed through the scheme.
What the scheme still has to settle
The development scheme is the document that will govern everything outside the first neighbourhood. According to the consultation page it will have four parts: a vision, a land use plan, an infrastructure plan and an implementation strategy. The infrastructure plan is to cover transport, water, sewer, open space, community facilities and stormwater.
The scale of what is left is considerable. The agency gives the size of the Priority Development Area as 420 hectares, on the eastern side of the Bruce Highway, bordered by the Caboolture River to the north and east. Beyond the 3,700 homes, its project page lists a marina with 400 wet berths, a dry stacker for 500 boats and 511 private pontoons, together with retail and tourism facilities, a hotel and public open space.
Related readWhat the 2026-27 Queensland Budget puts toward new housing supplyThose marine elements are what set North Harbour apart from the inland estates of the northern corridor, and they are the part with the longest lead time. The 2025 declaration statement tied the marina to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, saying the aim was to have its facilities ready by then.
Infrastructure charges inside the area are set through an Infrastructure Funding Framework. For North Harbour, the agency says, that framework currently refers back to the local government's own charging instruments.
Why this part of Moreton Bay
The statement gives one figure for local demand: the population of Burpengary East has grown 43 per cent since 2021. It says significant further growth is expected by 2041.
Burpengary East sits between Brisbane's northern suburbs and Caboolture, close to the Bruce Highway. It is the kind of location where new housing has been arriving steadily for years, estate by estate. North Harbour itself is an example. The 2025 declaration statement said more than 4,000 people already lived in the existing North Harbour community, and that more than 280,000 square metres of land in its business park had been sold and settled.
A Priority Development Area changes the scale. One plan covers the housing, the waterfront and the employment land together, and one authority assesses it.
The economic figures attached to the project are large for the district. The statement expects almost 2,000 jobs and $456 million of benefit to the regional economy. Those are estimates produced for the project, and they rest on the marina and the commercial precincts being built as well as the homes.
Related readQueensland home approvals sit 23 per cent above last April's levelWhat industry and government said
The project company described the start of works as the commencement of the first neighbourhood within the Priority Development Area, according to the statement. The Urban Development Institute of Australia's Queensland branch, also quoted in it, said the start showed what happens when the State and industry work together.
The Government presents North Harbour as evidence that its declarations produce homes quickly. The statement counts four Priority Development Areas declared in less than 18 months. The latest declaration came on 17 July 2026 at Halls Creek, south of Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast, where a Government statement projected 12,000 homes across more than 1,200 hectares, with 1,000 in an early release area.
North Harbour is the smallest of the areas declared in 2025. Economic Development Queensland's review of that year, published on 15 December 2025, listed four Priority Development Areas in its planning program: Waraba, declared in August 2024, with 30,000 planned homes, and the three declared in 2025, Mount Peter near Cairns with 18,500, Southern Thornlands in Redland City with 8,000 and North Harbour with 3,700. That is 60,200 planned homes between them, of which North Harbour is about 6 per cent. Its size is part of the reason it has moved first: a compact site beside an existing community, with one project company behind it.
The wider building figures put the 249 in proportion. The Australian Bureau of Statistics counted 10,861 dwellings commenced in Queensland in the March quarter of 2026, in seasonally adjusted terms, in its Building Activity release of 8 July.
Related readQueensland dwelling approvals fall 13.9 per cent in JulyThe statement also restates the State's wider programs. It says the $2 billion Residential Activation Fund has now unlocked more than 140,000 homes, that joint State and Commonwealth funding is to unlock 51,000 more, with 20,000 of those for first home buyers, that the $30,000 First Home Owner Grant continues, and that the target remains one million homes by 2044.
A first test of the model
Twelve months from declaration to works on site is brisk for a new community. It should be read with two points in mind. The early stage is a small share of the whole, chosen because it could move first on land beside an established estate. And the hardest parts of a waterfront project, the marine works and the major infrastructure, lie ahead.
It is also worth being exact about the stage reached. The statement speaks of works to support the construction of the homes, and Moreton Daily reported on 28 July that the first sod was turned that day. Earthworks and services come before slabs and frames, so the count of 249 describes a neighbourhood that has begun, with finished houses still some way off. Neither source gives a date for the first completions.
For Burpengary East, the news is more concrete than any statewide total. A site that was a plan a year ago now has machinery on it. The next marker is the proposed development scheme, due on public display in August or September on the agency's timetable. It will set out how the remaining 3,450 or so homes and the harbour itself are to follow, and it is the stage at which residents and landowners can make formal submissions.
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.
