Housing supply critical for emerging industry growth

Cairns is poised to drive the next wave of economic growth across Northern Australia, but structural constraints, particularly housing and enabling infrastructure, risk limiting that potential.

Cairns Regional Council’s submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia’s inquiry into Preparing for Emerging Industries Across Northern Australia positions Cairns as a strategic northern hub for emerging industries, while highlighting the critical role of housing, infrastructure and workforce availability in supporting sustainable growth.

The submission calls for housing supply and enabling infrastructure to be formally recognised as critical economic infrastructure, noting that emerging industries cannot expand without secure and affordable housing for the workforce they rely on. Persistently low rental vacancy rates and rising housing costs in Cairns are creating both profound social impacts and significant workforce and productivity constraints, directly affecting business confidence, labour attraction and investment decisions.

Council’s Securing Cairns Housing Foundations Plan provides a clear pathway to address these challenges through an infrastructure-led approach in the Mount Peter Southern Growth Corridor, enabling the delivery of approximately 18,500 new homes for around 42,500 people alongside essential trunk infrastructure.

Realising this opportunity at scale will require a coordinated, tri-partite investment partnership between the Federal, State and Local Governments to ensure Cairns and Northern Australia more broadly can fully capitalise on emerging industry growth.

Explore Council’s position by downloading the submission to the Inquiry into Preparing for Emerging Industries Across Northern Australia.