An Infrastructure Australia report to be released on Tuesday will show public transport, roads, hospitals and schools are failing to keep pace with the delivery of new housing in the growth areas of Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide.

Brisbane covers an area 20 times the size of New York City, with a quarter of its population. The report notes the city's need to avoid sprawl crucial.

Infrastructure Australia policy and research executive director Peter Colacino said south-east Queensland was one of the fastest-growing regions in Australia, so the challenge of accommodating growth in the region, while maintaining liveability, required long-term planning and a shared approach across governments.

"To 2041, more than 60 per cent of Brisbane's growth — 450,000 new residences — will occur in established suburbs," he said.

"Brisbane needs to focus on growing up, not out, through the delivery of high quality, higher density in established areas.

"It is not affordable or sustainable for Brisbane to accommodate the projected population growth in new greenfield areas.

"Research by Infrastructure Australia has found it is more cost-effective to accommodate growth through well-planned infill development."

Mr Colacino said the challenge was to deliver new or upgraded infrastructure alongside higher density housing.

"This means making sure schools, hospitals, recreational facilities and public transport services can support new people without compromising the liveability of existing communities," he said.

Mr Colacino said Brisbane was experiencing an unprecedented growth in demand for inner-city public schools.

"This demand reflects a broader lifestyle trend which has seen a growing number of families choosing to live in the inner-city in order to access the social and economic benefits that a growing city brings," he said.

"Addressing this challenge will require governments to be smarter about how they use and design future education spaces, with new vertical schools and the shared-use of existing assets, all good options for meeting demand."

The Queensland government is building two new schools in Brisbane's inner-city, at Fortitude Valley and Dutton Park, to take the pressure off existing schools.

Mr Colacino said south-east Queensland benefited from having large, well-resourced councils capable of delivering large projects and planning for the long-term.

"Brisbane Metro, being led by Brisbane City Council, is an example of a major project beyond the capability of councils in other states, which is providing new capacity to cater for growth," he said.

Mr Colacino said Australia's largest cities were growing and changing at a rate not seen for more than 50 years.

"This brings economic, social and culture opportunities for our cities, but if they are to remain great places to live, we need to balance growth in a way that works for the community," he said.

"Too many communities have witnessed the delivery of poor quality housing development which is not well integrated into the local area and not accompanied by the infrastructure and services needed to support it.

"As a result, communities are understandably apprehensive about future growth and change."

The report, the latest in the Planning Liveable Cities series, found Australia's largest cities were "playing catch up" in delivering infrastructure to support population growth.

Mr Colacino said lags in providing infrastructure cost the economy and affected people's quality of life.

"If we don't get the timing of new housing and infrastructure right, our growth centres risk being characterised by congested roads, overcrowded trains and buses, over-enrolment in schools, hospital bed shortages and constraints on community infrastructure," he said.

The findings come ahead of a COAG meeting in Adelaide on Wednesday, where governments will discuss a new framework for better managing the impact of population growth.