Housing in Ipswich

Ipswich City Council has developed a Local Housing Action Plan (LHAP) to support the delivery of housing in the City of Ipswich. The LHAP addresses current challenges in housing supply and sets out practical actions to improve access to quality, affordable and appropriate housing.

The LHAP acts as a central register of projects, bringing together government, industry, and community partners to innovate and plan for housing, recognising its vital role in community health and wellbeing.

The LHAP is built around four focus areas, reflecting the housing continuum from home ownership to emergency accommodation and between a single house on an established lot and a multi-storey apartment building (location and form):

• Housing for quality of life: desirable housing for a diversity of current and future households
• Planning for housing in well serviced areas: Leveraging existing infrastructure and community networks to support higher-density housing in accessible locations.
• Affordable housing: ensuring a range of housing to meet the requirements of differing socio-economic circumstances.
• Accessible and emergency housing: Accommodation that responds to specific personal circumstances and urgent needs.

Progress is tracked through ongoing data collection and updates from the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office, .id, and the Ipswich Population Modeller.

Improving housing delivery will require policy implementation from all levels of government. The LHAP documents what influences local government can have in efforts to address the national housing challenge.

As a living document, the LHAP will evolve over time, with priorities reviewed and refined to respond to changing needs.

View the City of Ipswich Local Housing Action Plan(PDF, 1MB)

The Ipswich City Plan 2025 (planning scheme) took effect on 1 July 2025 to guide growth of the City over the next 20 years.

Together with the Local Government Infrastructure Plan (LGIP), the planning scheme provides major land use policy reforms to support the delivery of local housing outcomes – housing supply, diversity, choice and affordability.

The plan identifies areas suitable for a wide range of housing forms and styles within distinct local areas, and its Residential Zone suite (including High, Medium, Low-Medium, Low Character, and Emerging Community zones) enables a spectrum of housing options.

The Ipswich City Plan 2025 plans for sufficient land to accommodate through which exceeds the ShapingSEQ 2023 dwelling benchmarks through to 2046.

View the Ipswich City Plan 2025

Growth Areas

• Ripley Valley Priority Development Area: One of Australia’s largest PDAs, Ripley Valley covers 4,680 hectares and is planned to accommodate 48,750 dwellings and a population of 131,000. More information on Ripley Valley is available at Ripley Valley Priority Development Area.
• Springfield area: The Springfield area is within the Western Corridor which is an important area for accommodating additional population within the City. More information is available at Springfield Structure Plan. 
• Western Growth Corridor: Includes the areas of Walloon, Thagoona and Rosewood, and is a major growth area planned to accommodate diverse housing and community development for over 70,000 residents, supported by new infrastructure and a long-term structure plan to ensure sustainable, well-connected communities. More information on the Western Growth Corridor is available in Part 4 of the Ipswich City Plan 2025:
  • Local Framework 24 – Walloon and Thagoona
  • Local Framework 26 – Rosewood

Council is current undertaking a structure planning project to set out a framework for the area's long-term development and provide certainty for fort he Rosewood, Thagoona and Walloon communities.  You can follow the Western Growth corridor Structure Plan project at https://www.shapeyouripswich.com.au/western-growth-corridor.

As of June 2025, the City of Ipswich has:

• 14,367 residential lots approved for construction (approximately 6 years of supply); and
• 4,371 multiple dwelling units approved (18+ years supply).

Quarterly and annual development activity reports pertaining to development approvals, lots approved/created and new dwellings etc. is available at Reports.

Gentle Density & Infill Opportunity

The Ipswich City Plan 2025 encourages ‘gentle density’ residential development, near transit stations, centres and corridors to diversify housing options and reduce sprawl while protecting character areas. Form-based development codes (Multiple Dwelling and Accommodation Code and Dwelling and Dual Occupancy Code) enables townhouses, low-rise (up to 3 storeys), medium-rise (3–5 storeys), and high-rise (6 or more storeys) housing in appropriate zones.

Developer resources

For information on undertaking residential development please visit Development Assessment.

Thinking about a second dwelling on your property?

To help meet the growing demand for diverse and affordable housing, council introduced new opportunities on 1 July 2025, to encourage Secondary Dwellings and Dual Occupancies in established suburban residential areas.  These housing options offer flexible living arrangements than can support extended families, provide rental opportunities or simply make use of underutilised residential land.

To make it easier for the community, council has removed the requirement for planning approval in most instances where a Secondary Dwelling or Dual Occupancy is proposed.  This allows more people to call Ipswich home whilst protecting what we value about our established suburbs.

Your options:

A Secondary Dwelling is a smaller dwelling on the same lot as a primary dwelling (e.g. a granny flat).  Any person/s can occupy the Secondary Dwelling.  It cannot be separately titled.

A Dual Occupancy means two dwellings on one lot, with no requirement for one to be subordinate to the other.  They may be attached (e.g. a duplex) or detached, and can be strata titled.

The Ipswich City Plan 2025 allows a generous approach to the size of a second dwelling based on the size of the property.  Refer to the table below for the Gross Floor Area (GFA) allowable, without a planning approval.

There are a number of requirements that need to be met, such as setbacks, building heights and car parking.  Building and plumbing approvals are still required for any new building works.

For more information, select to view the Fact Sheet, Secondary Dwelling and Dual Occupancy ^{(PDF, 2.67MB)}

Community Housing Providers (CHPs) are not-for-profit organisations that deliver affordable rental housing for people on low incomes or facing housing stress. They work in partnership with government and industry to manage and develop housing that is safe, secure, and sustainable, often supporting tenants with additional services to improve wellbeing and stability.

Council’s Local Housing Action Plan (LHAP)(PDF, 1MB) contains specific actions that assist CHPs in developing social and affordable housing projects in Ipswich, including:

• Identifying surplus government land for social housing (Action 1.1, 1.3, 1.4)
• Working with the State Government (e.g. EDQ) to identify demonstration projects that could involve a component of social housing (Action 1.2)
• Advocating to the State Government for a social housing delivery plan for the City of Ipswich to address the current shortfall in social housing and to cater for future growth (Action 1.7, 7.1)
• Incentivising social housing developments through infrastructure charges relief, fee relief, parking relief and other measures (Action 2.10).

Housing Diversity and Affordability Incentives Policy

Council’s Housing Diversity and Affordability Incentives Policy(PDF, 8MB) has been adopted to assist the work of CHPs by minimising costs associated with affordable and accessible multiple dwelling developments. The policy is intended to improve the viability of CHP projects by providing:

• Infrastructure contribution reductions or deferrals
• Application fee waivers
• Variations to standard parking requirements
• Fast tracked development assessment timeframes.

Together, Council’s LHAP and the Housing Diversity and Affordability Incentives Policy(PDF, 8MB) provide a policy framework to incentivise CHPs in delivering diverse housing opportunities to Ipswich, including social housing.

For Community Housing Providers

Council has an established policy and procedure for partnering for works local government infrastructure works, capital works and other projects. To find out more on how to be invited to submit tenders, go to Doing Business with Council.

Additional information for community housing providers is available on the State government Community Housing Providers webpage. 

Rent to Own: There is currently no active Rent to Own schemes by the Queensland Government. There are private companies in Queensland offer Rent to Own schemes that let tenants lease with an option to buy.

Boost to Buy: Instead of classic rent-to-own, Queensland now offers a shared-equity, Boost to Buy scheme that launched in July 2025. More information is available at the Queensland Treasury website.

• Boost to Buy - QLD Treasury

Build to rent: The Queensland Government amended the Planning Regulation 2017 in November 2025 to include Build to Rent as a defined land use term in the Queensland Planning System. The changes to the Regulation occurred after the recent adoption of the Council’s new Ipswich City Plan 2025 and as such it does not include this land use term. However, it is anticipated to be incorporated in a future planning scheme amendment.

• Planning Amendment Regulation 2025 – Housing and Education Matters | Planning

• People experiencing or at risk of homelessness
• Domestic and Family Violence