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Planning

This Month

AFR AFR Architect Michael Lavery says Brisbane 2032 stadium planning needs to avoid the mistakes of the 2003 Suncorp Stadium/Lang Park upgrade that failed to accommodate public and active transport (eg cycling/walking) connections to the venue. Photo: Peter Wallis

10 March 2025

How Brisbane Olympics can avoid Suncorp Stadium’s mistakes

The Olympic host city is about to announce new venues. They’ll saddle the city with long-term costs long after 2032 if not done right.

Twists and turns: Little-known funder Open Capital says it wants to fund the trouble Sth Bnk project in Melbourne.

Little-known funder eyes Australia’s biggest residential project

Sydney-based Open Capital says it’s in talks to fund the full $2 billion cost of the troubled Sth Bnk development. But its source of funds isn’t clear.

Up at last: A surge in apartments in Sydney has driven the first increase nationally in new attached home approvals in almost 2 ½ years.

The development tide has turned on apartments

A pickup in approvals after nearly 2½ years of decline has economists cheering – although developers say further incentives are needed.

February

The proposed tower at 153-157 Walker St, North Sydney, which could provide 520 homes.

Office tower to apartment block: Inside the new push to fix housing

Planning reforms in Australia’s two biggest states have sparked political backlash, but will buyers and developers fill in the missing middle?

The owners say they can’t knock down the dilapidated building at 1 Rathdowne Street without a demolition permit.

Melbourne’s ‘biggest eyesore’ could be targeted in housing blitz

Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny says a disused former Cancer Council building in the heart of Melbourne could be cleared for development into new homes.

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Janette Sadik-Khan was instrumental in closing New York’s Times Square to traffic.

City planners have a radical strategy to solve traffic problems

Tired of traffic? Relief is at hand, as city planners everywhere explore a bold way to solve the problem.

Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny and Premier Jacinta Allan have warned councils they will seize planning powers if they fail to create more housing supply.

Victoria must give up ‘ideological attachment’ to apartments: Metricon

Victoria will continue to miss housing targets until it realises Millennials and migrants want detached homes, not inner-city apartments, Metricon chief executive Brad Duggan says.

Sixty per cent of R3 zones across Sydney currently prohibit residential unit blocks of any scale.

The Sydney suburbs most affected by new higher-density housing rules

Council bans on apartments, terraces and townhouses to be overridden within 800 metres of 171 NSW suburbs.

Stairway to amenity: A key feature authorities will be unwilling to see removed as Beulah tries to cut costs from the Sth Bnk development is the Sth Bnk Steps, which rise up to a public park between the two towers. 

Beulah to cut ‘hundreds of millions’ from tallest residential tower

The developer of Sth Bnk, to be the tallest apartment tower in Australia, aims to reduce its $2 billion construction bill, putting it in a tussle with authorities.

A Suburban Raild Loop site in Melbourne.

Suburban Rail Loop is an intergenerational endowment to Melbourne

If incrementalism was allowed to paralyse previous Victorian governments, the city and state we know today would be a backwater.

Chairman Rhett Simonds.

Home builders consolidate ahead of next bull run in housing demand

Big builders want to expand to shore up their position and boutique players will cater to wealthy buyers in a sector reeling after pandemic-era disruptions.

January

David Droga’s ‘menacing’ Tamarama mansion gets court go-ahead

The Adman’s planning application triggered a battle for the 1101-square-metre site over what character housing should have in the prestigious area.

Nigel Bennett at the Barbican, London.

This star British gardener has big plans for Melbourne

Horticulturalist Nigel Dunnett is about to embark on his first project outside Britain – the Laak Boorndap garden in the new Melbourne Arts Precinct.

Room to move - and watch: The Australian Open has a large pool of flexible space to use for events and uses separate to the actual tennis matches.

What the Australian Open can teach Brisbane 2032

Like grand slam tennis, the biggest challenge the Olympics faces is to attract people who may not even care for the sports themselves. But that needs space.

Vacant in Sydney: Pedestrians in front of the 28-level 39 Martin Place tower, which opened last year, giving office stock in the CBD a boost.

Don’t say Trump, but return to office will pick up: property bosses

Heads of the country’s largest commercial landlords avoid commenting on the US president’s executive order. But they want workers back.

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The 20,000-square-metre precinct will feature six buildings (four of them residential) set around a central green square.

Canberra’s London Circuit to get $650m mixed-use precinct

Capital Property, the development company of late Rich Lister Terry Snow, is about to shape the largest CBD site ever sold by the ACT government.

December 2024

The Minns government in NSW wants to speed up housing approvals.

‘Profit vaporised by time’: Westpac boss backs council reform to fix housing

Anthony Miller has thrown his weight behind the NSW government’s ambitious push to bypass local councils and reform planning laws.

An artist’s impression of a proposal to replace what developer Fortis calls an “ageing residential flat building” in Elizabeth Bay with high-end apartments.

Elizabeth Bay luxury tower development rejected

The Rolling Stones made a surprise appearance in a judgment backing residents in a fight with developer Fortis about housing needs.

November 2024

Westfield Hornsby

The $1.5b housing opportunity at Westfield Hornsby

Seven of Sydney’s transport hubs have been earmarked for fast-track housing development. Mall giant Scentre is an early winner, and says much more can be done.

Greenfield developer Khurram Saeed says the Victorian government must keep releasing land to meet its housing targets.

How the Aussie dream is making the housing crisis worse

Pakistani migrant turned property developer Khurram Saeed says the Victorian government cannot rely on apartment construction to meet its ambitious housing targets.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/urban-planning-63m