Development confidence grows despite COVID-19
Date published: 16 July 2020
Townsville City Council has recorded strong growth in residential lot approvals, despite the presence of the COVID-19 impacts.
Planning and Development Committee Chairman Les Walker said the figures are a sign of renewed confidence in land sales.
“2020 is actually showing some gains over last year and we expect the Federal and State Government’s HomeBuilder and Home Owner grants to continue to lead a spike in responses as the industry looks to meet the demand for vacant lots,” Cr Walker said.
“This year’s statistics are also strong for plumbing and drainage applications and most relate to housing approvals so that is encouraging.
“Construction approvals relating to development approvals are also particularly strong this year.
“Overall, we haven’t seen any downturns and we’re trending better than last year in terms of application numbers.”
Cr Walker said development application numbers are encouraging.
“These figures show consistent growth in planning and development between 2018 and 2020, despite the unprecedented monsoon and COVID-19,” Cr Walker said.
“Some businesses have started recovering from the impacts of COVID-19 and have been adapting their business approach.
“We’ve had a good month in Townsville but we expect to see some real standouts next month. Council has received a lot of construction works applications for residential development and we expect to see an even greater uptake of the building grants incentives.”
