Brisbane 120sqm: The Backyard Just Became A Building Site

https://ripe.house/brief-lotsize Brisbane just cut the minimum lot size in parts of the city from 260 square metres to 120. A 185sqm driveway in Petrie Terrace sold for $855,000 the same week. The market is already asking which backyards became building sites—and which blocks still cannot clear the other tests. In this episode: - Brisbane City Council's 120sqm minimum applies in low-medium density zones covering about 14% of the city's residential land. Subdivision to 300sqm is also allowed within a 300m walk of a shopping centre, up from 200m, with 3–4 storeys permitted depending on the block. Council projects roughly 6,000 additional homes. - Dr Rachel Gallagher of Griffith University called the 120sqm lot a great headline, while noting that parking, frontage, site cover and other planning requirements still apply. The blocks that can clear those tests are the ones that become tradeable. - A 185sqm block in Petrie Terrace sold at auction for $855,000. The property last traded about 30 years ago for $157,000. - Queensland total dwelling approvals rose 33.4% in June 2026, the strongest state result, while private houses rose 2.9%. Nationally, total approvals rose 7.2% to 18,328; private dwellings excluding houses rose 17.8%, while private houses rose 0.4%. - The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council now expects the 1.2 million home target to slip to the end of 2030. Share of target built: Victoria 32%, Western Australia 29%, South Australia 28%, Queensland 24%, and New South Wales 21%. - System watch inside the same council reform: Moggill has a $1.24m median, 3.73% gross yield, 2.00% vacancy and 83.0% owner-occupation. Auchenflower has a $2.35m median, 2.66% yield, 1.70% vacancy and 52.0% owner-occupation. Moggill's short-term sold signal is effectively flat; Auchenflower's is down 17.5%. - Four street-level heatmap layers for Moggill—sold price, rental yield, owner-occupier share and social housing concentration—built from 2,489 addresses. - Q&A: why a monthly 28% fall in investor applications is a flow signal rather than a year-on-year trend, and why the 12-month total and same month a year earlier matter more. Plus, how scheme termination works when owners vote to sell a unit block, why thresholds and protections vary by state, and why strata and company title must be checked before buying. Sources: ABC News 23 August 2026 ABS Building Approvals June 2026 National Housing Supply and Affordability Council Brisbane City Council planning amendment Ripehouse Advisory proprietary suburb data Which suburb should we profile next? Comment your suburb below.

A driveway in Brisbane just sold for $855,000, 185 square metres, no house on it. On Tuesday, the council cut the minimum block size from 260 square metres to 120 across 14% of the city. That is not a planning story. That is a repricing of every backyard inside the line and one of the two suburbs I checked today moved the opposite way. Start with the number that did it. 120 square metres is the new minimum lot size in Brisbane's low-medium density zones. It was 260. The council did not rezone anything and it did not touch the suburbs most people picture. It changed the smallest unit of land you're allowed to create across about 14% of the city's residential land. Now the number, almost nobody connected to it. Queensland total dwelling approvals rose 33.4% in a single month. The strongest of any state in the country, but approvals for private sector houses rose only 2.9%. Almost all of that growth is not houses. It is the thing that fits on a smaller block. And here is what the council thinks it buys. Roughly 6,000 additional homes with buildings allowed to go to three or four storeys, depending on the block, and land within a 300 metre walk of a shopping centre now able to be split down to 300 square metres. That last rule used to be 200 metres. Small change on paper, large change on a map. The reporting framed this as a density fight and there is a real debate in there, but read what the planning academic actually said. Dr Rachel Gallagher called the 120 square metre lot a great headline and then pointed out that a stack of other requirements still have to be met. Parking, frontage, site cover. She is right and that is exactly why this matters to an investor rather than to a commentator. A reform that is easy to announce and hard to use does not lift every block equally. It lifts the ones that can actually clear the other tests. Narrow is what makes it tradable. So look at where the building is already happening. In Queensland, total dwelling approvals jumped 33.4% in June. House approvals moved 2.9%. The gap between those two bars is the entire story. The growth is in attached and small lot product and the council just widened the pipe that feeds it. It is not a Queensland quirk either. Nationally, in the same month, private sector dwellings excluding houses rose 17.8% while private sector houses rose four tenths of 1%. Total approvals were up 7.2% to 18,328. The country is building the missing middle because it is the only part that pencils. Against that, the national target keeps sliding. The government's own supply council now expects the 1.2 million home target will not be met until the end of 2030. Victoria has built about 32% of its share, Western Australia 29%, South Australia 28%, Queensland 24% and New South Wales 21%. When the target is missed at that scale, planning changes stop being politics and start being supply. Which brings us back to the driveway. 185 square metres in Petrie Terrace, walking distance to the city. The family who inherited it only worked out late that the house and the land sat on two separate titles. Their mother paid $157,000 for the property about 30 years ago. The land alone made $855,000 on Saturday. The market did not wait for the policy to bed down. It repriced the dirt. So let us test that inside the actual council area. Suburb 1 is Mog Hill, postcode 4070, about 18km west of the city centre and firmly inside Brisbane City Council. Median 1.24 million, gross yield 3.73%, vacancy 2% and 83% owne