With Victoria’s population expected to reach 10.3 million by 2051, the state government, within its recently released 44-page Housing Statement set the bold target of building 2.24 million homes over the next 28 years.

“We’re setting a bold target to build 800,000 homes in Victoria over the next decade. It’s a simple proposition: build more homes, and they’ll be more affordable,” noted the state’s premier Dan Andrews.

This equates to 80,000 new homes annually or 220 daily over the next 10 years.

Given that Victoria isn’t building enough homes for all of the people who will need them in years to come, the state within yesterday’s housing statement recognised the need to:

  • Clear the backlog of planning permits waiting to be approved.
  • Standardise rules to ensure good decisions are made faster.
  • Give builders, buyers and renovators certainty about how long approvals will take.

“Right now, the system just isn’t working like it should – and decisions aren’t getting made fast enough,” the state government Housing statement conceded.

“At a council level, there’s a backlog of around 1,400 planning permit applications for multi-unit housing that have been sitting with councils for more than six months waiting for a decision. Some 550 of those applications have been sitting with councils for more than a year.”

Over the last year, the number of dwellings approved across the state fell by 26.1%.

Important changes

Included within 30 measures designed to fast-track projects and cut red tape is the state’s plan to create a Building Monitor to represent consumers’ interests, improving the approval process, and requiring more people involved in a building project to be registered.

The Victorian Building Authority is also working to improve the performance of the regulator, drive improvements in the building system, and ‘put consumers at the centre of all it does’.

The state is also working on more changes to make it easier to get insurance, resolve disputes, and enforce the rules.

The state’s planning minister will also be empowered to overrule anti-development local councils.

Here’s a list of the noteworthy initiatives the state government has on the drawing board:

  1. Streamline the planning process for medium to high-density residential developments that meet the set criteria: construction costs worth at least $50 million in Melbourne or $15 million in regional Victoria and delivering at least 10% affordable housing.
  2. Around 13,200 additional homes will be brought to market that would otherwise be delayed – and it’ll cut application timeframes for these types of projects from more than 12 months down to four.
  3. Deliver an additional 60,000 homes around an initial 10 activity centres across Melbourne: Broadmeadows, Camberwell Junction, Chadstone, Epping, Frankston, Moorabbin, Niddrie (Keilor Road), North Essendon, Preston (High Street) and Ringwood.
  4. It will become easier to build a second small home on your property, and dwelling garden units won’t require a planning permit if they’re less than 60 square metres.
  5. Council planners will be able to quickly approve permits for houses that meet the residential standards.
  6. Single dwellings on lots bigger than 300 square metres, and not covered by an overlay, will no longer require a planning permit.
  7. No permits needed for granny flats.
  8. Single dwellings on lots smaller than 300 square metres, where an overlay doesn’t exist, will be ticked off within 10 days.
  9. The state will work with the PCA and the City to consider opportunities to facilitate the conversion of 80 designated office blocks into around 10,000-12,000 apartments and mixed-use properties.
  10. The state government has imposed a 7.5% short-stay levy on Airbnb and other short stays, which is expected to raise around $70 million annually.
  11. $500 million to help 3000 first home buyers via a shared equity scheme.
  12. 90 new planners to help clear permit application backlog for multi-unit housing.
  13. Melbourne’s 44 landmark public housing towers will be demolished and rebuilt within three years.
  14. No rent caps, but notices to vacate and increase rents will be extended to 90 days and a portable rental bond scheme will be introduced.

Some initial reactions

“The implications of the recent announcement could add further pressure on construction costs in Victoria,” RLB director Domenic Schiafone told the Australian Financial Review.
“What the (state) government is proposing is not a tax on short-stay platforms or property owners, it’s a tax on consumers who rent properties,” said Victoria Tourism Council CEO Felicia Mariana.
“Social housing is an “unequivocally good thing for Victoria” but there needs to be “genuine ongoing engagement with tower tenants,” said the Victorian Council of Social Service.
“The rental housing crisis simply won’t disappear overnight, but the combination of these new measures will help address the pain points renters tell us they are facing,” Farah said Farouque director of community engagement at Tenants Victoria.
“Daniel Andrews could have promised 8 million home in the next 10 years because in a year’s time he will not have built 80,000 homes, let alone 800,000 homes over 10 years he promised today,” said the Victoria opposition leader John Pesutto.

 

Image: One of the 44 landmark public housing towers that will be demolished and rebuilt within three years: Credit Wikipedia