An independent evaluation has found that Queensland’s $741 million Resilient Homes Fund helped thousands of homeowners strengthen their homes against future floods following the devastating 2021–22 Southern Queensland floods.
The programme offered three voluntary options: home buy backs, raising homes and resilient retrofits. As of December 8, 2025, it had received 6,558 registrations of interest, with 685 home buy back contracts settled, 341 home raising grants completed and 805 resilient retrofit grants completed.
The evaluation found that the programme helped homeowners better understand flood risks, implement resilience measures and recover from disasters. Many participants also reported greater confidence in their homes’ ability to withstand future flooding.
Researchers found that personalised support was particularly important. Financial circumstances, language barriers, digital access and social support affected how easily homeowners could participate.
The study recommends that future disaster recovery programmes retain the systems, data and guidance developed through the fund rather than starting from scratch after every disaster. Better use of flood, property and local government data could also improve future programmes.