Source: Australian Property Journal
NEARLY 500 flood-impacted Queensland families have accepted an offer to have their home bought back under the state government’s Resilient Homes Fund (RHF).
The program, a jointly-funded initiative delivered through Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA), was established in May last year following the catastrophic 2021-22 rainfall and flooding events.
To date, 304 sale contracts under the voluntary home buy-back program have already settled, and 110 homes have been demolished or removed, allowing the impacted residents to move to a safer location.
In total, 497 homeowners have accepted offers for buy-back out of the 676 offers that have been presented to homeowners so far.
A total of 789 valuation inspections have been undertaken, and the government is subsequently expecting that the number of homes purchased under the program will increase significantly.
Minister for Emergency Management, Senator Murray Watt said the program had now exceeded original estimates for homes identified and predicted to be settled for purchase.
“By helping people to relocate to less disaster-prone locations, we can help to defend against the horrific loss of life and property damage that we’ve seen in previous disasters.”
The government earlier this year announced it was increasing the number of properties identified for buy-back from an initial estimate of 500 homes to more than 800 properties.
Steven Miles, Deputy Premier and Minister responsible for the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, said that following homeowner agreement for buy-back, the program funds the respective council to purchase the land, with all homes purchased under the program demolished or removed. The land is then re-zoned to an appropriate,non-occupied use such as green space.
In early July, the Queensland Reconstruction Authority conducted its fourth and final round of damage assessments for floods, that revealed almost 90% of impacted properties were no longer showing signs of damage.
More than 6,500 homeowners registered for the $741 million RHF, which comprises a range of home buybacks, house raising and retrofitting programs. The government announced earlier this month that up to 1,000 additional Queensland homeowners were eligible for funding to raise their homes and be protected from a future flood event afte expansions were made to the RHF.
The Department of Energy and Public Works is managing the delivery of the retrofitting and house-raising components of the RHF, while the Queensland Reconstruction Authority is managing the voluntary home buy-back program together with local government.
