$11m tech tool to slash planning time, get ‘people into homes quicker’

Having secured more than $11 million in funding, the platform, aptly named Land iQ, “brings more than 40 land use data types together, making it easy to search more than 8 million lots and properties and quickly test different scenarios for land use”.

According to the state government, it means the time – and workload – required by government and the private sector to assess land for housing and related uses can be cut from weeks or months to days or less.

At present, Land iQ is being used by NSW government departments and nine local councils – saving time, cost and duplication.

Over the next two years, the aim is to upgrade Land iQ “to a more mature tool” that can be licensed for use by other sectors working in conjunction with land, such as private industry, local councils, universities and organisations, such as local Aboriginal land councils.

Funding from the Commonwealth government will also enable natural disaster risk and resilience analysis to be built into Land iQ – meaning the technology will be equipped to consider a site’s vulnerability to hazards such as bushfires, droughts and floods.

According to Steve Kamper, the Minister for Lands and Property: “This is smarter planning, plain and simple, and we’re deploying the technology to support one of the government’s top priorities – more housing for the people of NSW.”

“We are using every lever at our disposal to speed up the planning process and get more people in NSW into homes sooner.”

“Agencies can bring together more than 200 data sources to find sites that meet development requirements, then virtually test different planning scenarios in specific locations,” he outlined.

Minister for Housing Rose Jackson said the NSW government is “rebuilding our housing system after over a decade of neglect”.

She stressed: “We need more housing as quickly as possible, this platform speeds up the time to get to a formal proposal or development application.”

“All government agencies and councils using a shared platform with shared data means time and money that would otherwise be wasted will be going towards fixing the housing crisis.”

Federal Minister for Emergency Management, Murray Watt, said: “Initiatives like Land iQ will enable the NSW government to make faster, smarter land use decisions to support emergency response, recovery and long-term resilience.”