Brisbane is abandoning the low-density sprawl that has defined its growth for a century. According to new research from RSM, the city is shifting toward a fundamentally different urban model: self-contained suburban density hubs that promise to end long commutes and remake how residents live, work, and shop.
The pattern is unmistakable. Instead of spreading outward indefinitely, Brisbane is concentrating new housing and mixed-use development around major suburban shopping precincts, transport nodes, and local "high streets." These become mini-cities where residents can live, work, shop, and access services without leaving the precinct. The model mimics successful patterns in Asian cities, where density clusters around accessible neighbourhood centres rather than centralising everything in one CBD.
Brisbane City Council has already begun implementing this shift through its Suburban Renewal Precincts program and anti-sprawl planning amendments. The council is allowing building heights of up to 25 storeys around Indooroopilly Shopping Centre and up to 30 storeys around Carindale Shopping Centre, compared to much lower limits historically. Similar changes are being applied across multiple suburbs.
The economics are straightforward. Brisbane faces demand for 210,800 new homes by 2046, yet land for sprawl expansion is finite and increasingly costly. With the private sector accounting for 96 per cent of new homes in Brisbane, planning rules must create feasible development scenarios or projects simply won't be built. Taller buildings near existing services and transport make financial sense for developers and reduce infrastructure costs for councils.
The strategy also addresses a persistent weakness in Brisbane's suburban structure. Brisbane holds the dubious honour of being one of the lowest-density cities in the world, which has locked residents into car dependence and stretched council budgets across kilometres of roads and services. The proposed changes could create up to 6,000 new homes by 2032, many in locations where people can walk to trains, shops, and workplaces.
Yet the approach faces legitimate tension. Some argue that concentrating density around a few suburban hubs simply creates new bottlenecks and that more dispersed, moderate infill across existing suburbs would be preferable. Critics reluctantly conclude that medium-density apartments alone are not a viable answer to Brisbane's sprawl problems, particularly when regulations and market conditions make apartment construction difficult across the city. Council decisions on which precincts receive density uplift will determine winners and losers among suburbs.
The fundamental shift is real, however. As Brisbane's Better Suburbs Initiative chair Ross Elliott observed, suburban centres that started 40 years ago as shopping-only destinations have evolved; they are increasingly places people want to live near and work near, if planning allows. The report and council initiatives suggest Brisbane is finally letting that evolution happen.