The 2032 Brisbane Olympics offer a rare opportunity to transform our city for generations to come. Olympics Infrastructure plans to develop affordable housing, accessible greenspace and increase public transport options, such as extending rail lines and investing in light rail, could leave a positive lasting impact on our city.
The 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games is an opportunity to solve the housing and public transport issues in our neighbourhoods, but decision makers must prioritise community good above developer and corporate profits. Our concern is that the current plans will make the housing crisis drastically worse. Locals saw surging house prices and rents in Olympic cities like Barcelona, Tokyo and L.A.,when many developers turfed out their tenants to make way for short term accommodation.
The trend from nearly every host city is that Olympic Games fuel unaffordable development, drive up the cost of land, drive up the cost of housing and rents, and push working people out of their neighbourhoods.
The core business of the Olympics should be promoting sport and community engagement, not media deals and property development.
To ensure that Brisbane’s lasting Games legacy is a positive one, we must use the 2032 Games to tackle the housing crisis head on, by investing in publicly-owned housing, cracking down on short-term stays like Airbnb, and capping rent increases.
The Athlete’s Village will host 10,000 athletes and team officials for the Olympics, and more than 5,000 for the Paralympics. Rather than selling this housing off, like we saw in Sydney and the Gold Coast, the Village should be turned into beautiful, accessible, publicly-owned homes.
Imagine the difference a modern light rail system from Northshore in Hamilton down to Garden City in Mt Gravatt would make! This would link a number of our existing high frequency transit corridors and fast-growing housing and shopping precincts.
We could also extend the Doomben rail line to Hamilton North Shore, supporting the thousands of residents getting to and from workplace and social events.
Sign our petition to tell the Queensland Government to:
- retain 100% of the Athletes’ Village as publicly-owned housing
- prevent housing being converted into AirBnBs, and
- implement a cap on rent increases.