Overview

South East Queensland (SEQ) is Australia's fastest growing metropolitan region. From 2006 to 2031, its population is expected to grow from 2.8 million to 4.4 million people. The region covers 22,890 square kilometres, stretching 240 kilometres from Noosa in the north to the Queensland-New South Wales border in the south, and 160 kilometres west to Toowoomba.

The SEQ region includes land covered by 11 city and regional local governments. Its regional landscape is a rich mix of bushland and beaches, mountain ranges and farm paddocks, rivers and lakes.

SEQ’s population is heavily urbanised and is generally concentrated in Brisbane and Toowoomba and at the Gold and Sunshine Coast.

Future South East Queensland

By 2031, an additional 754,000 dwellings will be required, as well as supporting infrastructure and services. This will impose significant social, economic and environmental pressures on the region.

The SEQ Regional Plan seeks to proactively manage this growth by identifying a preferred settlement pattern for the region and encouraging more compact development by taking advantage of areas with existing services and infrastructure. Also, an increased proportion of the region’s population will be accommodated in the Western Corridor around Ipswich, reducing growth pressures on the coast.

Future residential growth will be accommodated through a combination of redevelopment, undeveloped broadhectare sites and limited rural living. A strong focus of the SEQ Regional Plan is looking at better ways to use under-utilised land. Notably, the plan sets local government targets for the additional dwellings that will be required in SEQ by 2031. Nearly half are to be built in established urban areas through infill and redevelopment.

The SEQ Regional Plan protects 85 per cent of the region from large-scale and inappropriate urban development by restricting this development outside the Urban Footprint and identifying areas within the Urban Footprint for future urban growth.

The SEQ Regional Plan was developed under the Integrated Planning Act 2009. It remains current under the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 and, when updated, will reflect the requirements of the new legislation.

The South East Queensland Regional Planning Committee advises the regional planning Minister about planning in SEQ.