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January 21, 2026 — 6:04pm
Keen to protect the “unique Queenslander” house style, the state government will not remove character zoning, despite calls to cut red tape and overhaul planning regulations.
Scrapping character zoning was among 64 recommendations in a major report released on Wednesday by the Queensland Productivity Commission.
The LNP government rejected the recommendation and several others, but promised to reform the construction and development sector, which it said was “strangled by red tape and union indulgence”.
The Crisafulli government ordered the major review from the commission as part of its efforts to address housing affordability and construction productivity, amid significant new home targets and major Olympics projects.
An interim report last year found the construction and development industry had not been keeping pace with demand, which had more than doubled since December 2020, with productivity falling 9 per cent since 2018.
That was calculated to be the equivalent of 77,000 homes that had not been built, which the government said would have been enough to address the current housing shortage.
The commission’s 458-page final report pins the productivity fall on the growing regulatory burden across land use, building and labour, along with “increasingly interventionist procurement policies”.
Planning regulations alone can add up to $160,000 to the cost of building a detached house on Brisbane’s fringe, according to the commission.
It added that reforming the planning system could reduce home price growth “by as much as 64 per cent”.
The commission proposed introducing a set of state-managed flood and bushfire overlays, as well as removing blanket character zoning, which it said does little to preserve heritage and does not necessarily reflect community views.
Within the Brisbane City Council area, the report notes, most land within six kilometres of the CBD, and 69 per cent of residential land within one kilometre of the rail network, is effectively zoned low density.
“Either explicitly or because it has character overlays that make most development untenable,” the report says, adding to affordability issues by restricting supply where many people want to live.
The LNP said scrapping character zoning would be a “significant overhaul” and go against its approach to give more autonomy to local governments. It also rejected introducing targets for councils.
“The removal or dilution of character zoning could undermine long-standing planning principles that protect the unique identity and character of the Queenslander built form,” the government said.
The LNP has agreed fully or in principle with 51 recommendations, including several addressed by the removal of the so-called “CFMEU tax” last year.
“We have been left a significant productivity challenge, but we have already delivered reform, including permanently axing Labor’s Best Practice Industry Conditions, recognising it was crippling productivity in Queensland, projected to cost Queenslanders $20.6 billion over the next five years,” Treasurer David Janetzki said.
The government also rejected the commission’s call for New Zealand-style, evidence-based planning through independent expert panels.
The commission said this could be achieved through citizen panels in planning consultation or zoning decision-making, where a majority of home owners in an area could request greater density.
A statewide digital planning portal was also rejected.
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