Brisbane landlord says micro apartments help investors and tenants in housing crisis

Australia Broadcast Center

28-05-2025

A Brisbane real estate tycoon says he is helping landlords profit off the housing crisis using micro apartments.
On Friday, Future Housing Taskforce chairman Kevin Doodney opened Brisbane's first "resi-rental", where a house is subdivided into five micro apartments with an onsite landlord.
Each micro apartment is a self-contained unit with a bathroom and kitchenette, rented out for upwards of $400 per week.
Mr Doodney said he had no ethical concerns about helping "eager investors to maximise off the Brisbane housing crisis".
The High Yield Property Club founder said subdividing blocks into micro apartments helped increase the supply of affordable homes.
"The ethics of it doesn't come into play because the tenants are winning, the owners are winning," Mr Doodney said.
"We're trying to move people away from slum landlords to quality housing outcomes.
"The cost of a powered tent site in the same suburb is more than what we rent this for."
Former housing minister Mick de Brenni said the micro apartments would have been illegal if not for reforms passed by the previous Queensland government.
"What we did was amend laws that made this sort of housing impossible to build, outdated laws that put a limit on the number of people not related to you that you could live with," he said.
"We changed those laws to create more affordable housing and create a diversity of options so more people can find a safe place to live."
Under the housing reforms, Queensland share houses do not need council permission even in low-density zones earmarked for single dwellings.
In Brisbane, rooming houses are also exempt from infrastructure charges if they have five people or fewer.
Tenants Queensland chief executive Penny Carr said micro apartments might suit some renters, but it was a stretch to call them affordable housing.
"It's definitely not affordable for a single person or a single parent on a Jobseeker payment.
"A couple on Jobseeker payments would be paying about 50 per cent of their income on rent."
Retired couple Robyn and Rodger Macqueen bought Brisbane's first resi-rental for $1.4 million and will be moving into it in two weeks.
Mr Macqueen said he did not mind the idea of living with tenants, since it would bring additional income in retirement.
"We figured, if we're happy enough to have other people living there, why wouldn't we live there?" he said.