Voting is compulsory and by post, with ballot packs delivered from Monday 5 October and the poll closing on Tuesday 27 October.

HIA Tasmania Executive Director Benjamin Price said it was easy to assume planning was now entirely a state matter, but councils still make many of the decisions that determine how much housing gets built and how quickly.

"Councils decide where zones go through their local planning schedules, they start rezonings, and as planning authorities they decide most development applications, so the people we elect this month will have a real say over housing for the next four years," Mr Price said.

"The state sets many of the rules, but a council that wants more homes can make a big difference, and one that treats every application as a problem to be managed can slow things right down."

HIA's 2026 Planning Blueprint Scorecard gave Tasmania's planning system two out of five and found it lacks enough focus on residential land and well-located higher density housing. The Scorecard identifies common causes of delay across the country, including overly conservative local decision-making, repeated requests for more information, inconsistent approaches between councils, and extra conditions placed on approvals. It notes that planning approval for a stand-alone house can take more than six months.

The Australian Zoning Atlas, published by YIMBY Melbourne, shows how little room current settings leave for anything other than low-rise housing. It finds about 97 per cent of residential land within 20 kilometres of the Hobart GPO is highly restricted, mostly because it permits no more than two storeys, the highest share of any Australian capital. The Atlas also finds that all but one of the Greater Hobart council areas it measures sit above 94 per cent.

"This isn't a problem confined to one municipality. It's the same story right across Greater Hobart, which is why we need councils working with the state, and their communities, to fix it rather than waiting for someone else to," Mr Price said.

"We'd like to see new councils use their local planning schedules and rezonings to allow more homes close to shops, services and transport, and get housing applications decided on time without piling on extra requests and conditions," he said.

"We'd also like them to back the state in adopting the Improving Residential Standards recommendations, which would allow more height and less car parking for townhouses and apartments, rather than resisting those changes when they come."

Tasmania completed 2,456 new homes in 2024-25, about half of the 5,022 a year it needs to meet its share of the National Housing Accord target. HIA's latest Affordability Report found housing affordability in Hobart deteriorated by 9.7 per cent over the year to June 2026.

"The councillors we elect this October will be in office until 2030, and if they're serious about housing, planning reform needs to be at the top of their list," Mr Price said.

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