The amount dedicated to round one of the Residential Activation Fund has been doubled since its original allocation. Photo: Department of Housing and Public Works.
The Queensland Government is targeting Ipswich with the Residential Activation Fund, aiming to provide the region with much-needed new housing.
The government said it had allocated $73.6 million under the program to support the construction of two Ipswich projects aimed at providing 11,300 new homes.
The scheme will provide $15.8 million to upgrade Fischer Road in Ripley from a two-lane rural thoroughfare to a two-lane urban sub-artierial road with a kerb, channel, street lighting, stormwater drainage, turning lanes at major intersections and a three-metre-wide shared path. The government said the upgrade would unlock 2300 new homes.
In addition, $57.9 million will upgrade Ripley Road from a two-lane rural arterial road to a four-lane median-divided urban arterial road with associated kerb and channel, street lighting, stormwater drainage, intersection upgrades, trees, cycle paths, footpaths, bus stops and a service road. This work will provide access to the Ripley township to create 9000 new homes.
“The Crisafulli Government’s landmark $2 billion Residential Activation Fund is fast-tracking the delivery of two critical infrastructure projects set to unlock 11,300 new homes in Ipswich,” Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Jarrod Bleijie said.
“This critical partnership with Ipswich City Council will unlock much-needed housing sooner.”
The Residential Activation Fund has received 178 submissions, with 114 from regional, rural and remote Queensland and 64 from South-East Queensland.
Round one of the fund allocations is delivering $1 billion from the 2025-26 Budget, a figure doubled from the original, largely in response to strong support for the project.
The first component of the funding goes towards the construction of critical infrastructure such as water supply, stormwater, sewerage and roads, which are needed to establish new residential developments.
The Residential Activation Fund is a critical component of the Securing Our Housing Foundations Plan, which seeks to overcome obstacles to new developments.
The government hopes the program will support one million new homes by 2044, with a funding stream that devotes half of all allocations to regional and remote parts of the state.
Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said: “No council in Queensland is forecast to grow faster than Ipswich in the coming decades, and the Ripley Valley is at the forefront of this growth.
“This $73.6 million injection into Ipswich’s priority development area (PDA) shows the Queensland Government’s real commitment to addressing the challenges we face in bringing affordable housing to the market sooner.”
