“Zoned ‘Community’, Not ‘Residential'”: A Coalition Wants Queensland’s Church Land Opened to Housing

• Yes In Faith’s Backyard Queensland is lobbying to unlock church land for housing
• Much of that land is inside towns and cities but zoned for community use
• Churches are described as among the state’s biggest landowners outside government
• The group sought changes in Queensland’s housing affordability bill

A coalition of housing advocates and church figures in Queensland is campaigning to turn under-used church land into homes. The ABC reported on 17 May 2024 that Yes In Faith’s Backyard Queensland, known as YIFBY, was lobbying for changes to planning law to make it easier for faith groups to build housing.

The group’s chief executive, Natalie Rayment, explained the obstacle. “This is land that’s already in the urban fabric but it’s zoned ‘community’ not ‘residential’,” she said. Because of that zoning, building homes on church sites usually requires a lengthy and expensive rezoning.

Jackson Hills, policy and strategic engagement manager at the housing peak body Q Shelter, pointed to the scale of church holdings, describing the church as “one of the biggest landowners in the state outside of the state government.” Daniel Hobbs, a former Anglican parish priest at St Paul’s Church in Manly, said: “I do think there’s opportunities to leverage what is otherwise under-utilised assets.”

The working group was pressing for its proposals to be included in the state’s Housing Availability and Affordability amendment bill, with public consultation closing on 21 May 2024. The report did not give an estimate of how many homes could be built.

The campaign rests on a simple observation: many congregations sit on land they no longer fully use, in places where homes are desperately needed, but planning rules were never written with that use in mind.

Jamaica’s churches are also among its largest landowners, and much of their property is in town centres or along main roads. If church land is to help ease the island’s housing shortage, the planning question is the same: how quickly can a church lot be approved for homes? Jamaican church leaders could learn from Queensland by forming a joint working group with housing experts and pressing for a clear, affordable route to rezone surplus church land for residential use.

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