$3.5 billion 'budget black hole' for Brisbane's Olympic athletes' village

Wednesday, 22 January 2025 20:44

The deputy premier claimed it could cost about $3.5 billion to build enough apartments to house 10,000 athletes across four villages.

Construction of the athletes' village in Paris began five years out from the Olympics, which leaves just two years for the Queensland government to decide on a plan for Brisbane.

The deputy premier today claimed that it could cost about $3.5 billion to build enough apartments to house 10,000 athletes across four villages.

"If the athletes' villages continue in those four locations as planned by the former Labor government, it's going to cost Queenslanders $3.5 billion," Jarrod Bleijie said.

The Deputy Premier today revealed that it could cost about $3.5 billion to build enough apartments to house 10,000 athletes across four villages.

"Only Jarrod Bleijie can release to you how that number has been determined, and why he says it's going to cost $3.5 billion" Deputy Opposition Leader Cameron Dick said.

"There hasn't been any planning work, there hasn't been any site determination yet, there hasn't been any costings done."

Bleijie insisted the figures came from the Treasury.

"I'm now disclosing that the cost of these athlete's villages is a budget black hole of $3.5 billion," he said.

Like with the Commonwealth Games, the 2032 Olympic villages would likely be built in partnership with developers, and either sold off or used in build-to-rent schemes.

The games' independent infrastructure coordination authority is currently conducting a 100-day review and assessing options for the villages.

9News can reveal that $2.4 billion will be budgeted in the forward estimates for the athletes' village.

It is expected to be revealed in the mid-year fiscal and economic outlook tomorrow.

Once the independent infrastructure panel has decided what the village will look like, it will likely be built in partnership with the private sector, so the entirety of that funding might not be needed.

Exactly where the village or villages will be built is still up in the air, but Northshore is a likely site, since much of it is state-owned land.

The State Government wants to factor it into expenses as a signal to the industry that the project will go ahead.

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