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Gabrielle Chariton
Content Writer
For more than 20 years, Brent Fletcher, Planning and Design Manager at Ausbuild, has leveraged his HIA membership as a powerful platform for positive change within the housing industry.
‘I’m driven by a mantra that if I’m not part of the solution, I must be part of the problem,’ he says.
Brent was born in England and migrated to Australia with his family in the 1970s, celebrating his ninth birthday on the ship. His father, a carpenter who could ‘fix anything’, passed away soon after the family had settled into their new life, but Brent had inherited his father’s love of working with his hands.
A smart kid with a head for maths and a talent for drawing, he left school around the age of 15 and began a cadetship in drafting with Logan Homes, a progressive modular housing company.
‘Building design is a lot about equations, dimensions, working out volumes, but you need an artistic element to get that design flair,’ he explains. ‘So, I was pretty lucky just to walk into the right career.’
In 1994, Brent moved to the Queensland residential land development company, Ausbuild, as a senior draftsman. Several years and promotions later, as Planning and Design Manager, Brent became involved with HIA while preparing an Ausbuild submission against a new Redland City Council planning scheme.
‘Mike Roberts [HIA Queensland Executive Director] said to me, “I've got your submission. I like it. I want to offer you a position on the Environment, Planning and Development Committee”.’
Immediately, Brent was struck by the collegiate, collaborative nature of the HIA committees. ‘It's a little like State of Origin, where different players from different teams come together to play the same game, which is the housing industry game.’
In 2017 he stepped into the role of President of the HIA Queensland Regional Executive Committee and has recently chaired the National Planning Committee and National Membership Committee, all the while using this platform to help deliver a more efficient and affordable industry for HIA members and homeowners.
‘You’re creating conversation about elements that are a challenge either for members or the industry itself, then finding a logical solution,’ he says. ‘It's being part of that to help smaller businesses flourish and do better or actually grow to become bigger businesses.’
Brent considers the disconnect between the National Construction Code and planning regulations to be one of the biggest issues. ‘I am acutely conscious of where complex and ineffective regulation is adding unnecessary cost to the industry’s capacity to deliver affordable homes,’ he says.
‘That's where my fine-tuning has been in that space, where the dwelling meets the land and how we can fine-tune that. Once you get that right, you actually save the consumer money.’
At a more individual level, Brent attributes much of his professional success to his involvement with HIA. ‘If I'd had known what the benefit would be to my career within the industry, I would've become a HIA member when I was 19 years old,’ he says.
‘Being a member, you’re connected to other members and the industry, plus HIA’s information. This accelerates your learning and gives you a broad knowledge, as well as networking opportunities. You know who to contact if you have a situation and vice versa.’
While retirement may be on the horizon, it’s not a terribly appealing prospect for Brent. As one of those people who ‘can’t sit still’, he has much to do in terms of helping to reform legislation and streamline the process of getting a house out of the ground.
‘What I'm excited about for the future is engaging with government to understand how we can get rid of ridiculous legislation that puts barriers in the way of creating the housing that is needed. So we could knuckle down and start building more than 35,000 dwellings a year in Queensland and start to hit our 50,000 mark.’
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First published on 6 Nov 2025.