A major development approved for Milton will mark a milestone for Brisbane as the first apartments to be built without residential car parking facilities.
Brisbane City Council has approved the 397-unit build-to-rent twin-tower concept, which features limited visitor parking and around 500 bike parking spaces for residents.
The idea has sparked debate on talkback radio, but for anyone who rides a bike, it makes perfect sense, being 500 metres from Milton station and adjacent to the Bicentennial Bikeway.
The Milton area offers a short, flat ride to the CBD, and is only minutes from Toowong and the western suburbs. Queensland University is an easy ride, and West End and South Bank are accessible via cross-river bridges. Public transport also abounds, with constant train, bus and ferry services.
In 2024, Brisbane City Council moved to scrap minimum car parking requirements for high-rise apartments in high-density areas including Milton, Newstead, Fortitude Valley and Kangaroo Point. At the time, the industry estimated each basement car space cost more than $100,000 to build.
Sounds good but if it’s anything like where I am, end up with cars parked on streets everywhere.
I would go further and expabd it to everybody and have a 20 year plan that in order to own a vehicle you must have off street parking for it. And return the full width of streets to moving vehicles.
Great in theory, but the reality is many people will still have a car and park on the street.
Our councils are pushing for higher density alongside PT routes including those on busy roads. These days unless during clearway times these multilane roads automatically have the left lane clogged with parked cars.
Yes, I agree with your reservations about the plan to build a high rise residential complex without any parking provided.
But there are a few points to consider here.
It’s probably going to attract a lot of overseas student occupants, presumably mostly those with family financial support because it will be at the more premium end of the market (for student accommodation). Overseas students (even those with financial support) tend not to own cars, for obvious reasons.
Also, Brisbane tends to be (slightly) more diligent about enforcement of car parking regulations than some other places in Australia .. speaking from personal experience here
But having said that, I recently spent a few days in Brisbane suburbia (after an absence of more than ten years). And I noticed that many of the suburban streets were unfortunately more clogged with parked cars (and trailers, boats and caravans) than they used to be when I lived and cycled in these areas.
Ironically, some of the old and narrow inner-suburban streets - in suburbs like Red Hill, Petrie Terrace (a suburb), Paddington and Rainworth- were an absolute pleasure to ride on because many of these little streets had the bright yellow (no parking) lines on both sides
Only problem is that some of these streets are diabolically steep !
But yes, one of the challenges for the future of our urban environments is changing the public mentality that you can use premium road real estate for parking whatever you like, indefinitely.
Unlike some other issues, it is one that is likely to get properly addressed- eventually.
Interesting, and about time. Developers will soon determine if the market wants car spaces. Some people dont, and they shouldn’t have to pay for one just because the rules said the building needed one.
