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Planning

Yesterday

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.

  • Gus McCubbing

This Month

Premier Chris Minns announced further reforms of the planning system, including new approval pathways that will bypass councils.

NSW to fast track approval of large housing plans

The country’s two biggest states are taking steps to speed up the housing approval processes that developers say are holding back new projects.

  • Michael Bleby
Just 10 metres wide: The Ferrars & York apartment building occupies a 610-square-metre site between a tram line and a main road in South Melbourne.

How to build housing on urban wasteland

An apartment building sandwiched between a road and railway line has set a new standard for what can be done with once-derelict sites.

  • Michael Bleby
Business Council round table discussion members, left to right. Lendlease chief executive Tony Lombardo, Stockland chief executive Tarun Gupta, BCA chief executive Bran Black and CBA Matt Comyn.

Construction workers should be 10pc of migration, big developers urge

That was one of the key messages from a housing roundtable that focused on how to remove roadblocks to increasing the supply of affordable houses

  • James Eyers and Campbell Kwan

October

Pedestrians walk along the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manhattan

Welcome to New York’s next hot neighbourhood

Google and Disney have moved in to Hudson Square. Now developers luring residents with green spaces and a pedestrian-friendly plan for the once gritty industrial area.

  • Arielle Paul
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Jacinta Allan is staking her premiership on getting more frustrated millennials into the cramped housing market, pitching an ambitious vision to make Victoria the ‘townhouse capital’ of Australia.

Allan makes townhouse pitch to woo millennial voters

Pollsters say Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has staked her leadership on her housing credentials after a week-long blitz of announcements.

  • Gus McCubbing
AFR Building designer Ben Wardle says Merribek council’s guaranteed 6-week approval process for qualifying developments will speed up housing delivery. He got his first permit in just 3 1/2 weeks Type of photo: Ben outside the under-construction project of two townhouses in Melbourne’s Coburg. WEdnesday 16th October 2024 Melbourne Photo Eamon Gallagher

Six weeks for a housing approval? This council guarantees it

There are many reasons housing projects can be delayed, but one Melbourne municipality is doing what it can to prevent them.

  • Michael Bleby
A fine line: builders need to be able to propose rezoning to state governments to overcome local council objections, the BCA says.

Put rezoning in hands of home builders, BCA says

Unlocking more land for development is one way to lower hurdles to new housing at a time when high costs render many new projects unviable.

  • Michael Bleby
New homes in Wyndham Vale, on Melbourne’s fringe.

Name and shame plan to speed housing approvals won’t work, states say

Victoria, Queensland, WA and SA have rejected the idea of publishing the housing approval records of local authorities.

  • Michael Bleby, Tom Rabe and James Hall

September

The median strip in the middle of Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

Does anyone want a park in the middle of Park Avenue?

More green space is generally welcomed in New York – but not everyone is convinced a park in the middle of a busy street is a good idea.

  • Dodai Stewart
Bricking up: New housing approvals rose in July, but the boost may not last.

Apartments boost housing approvals – but not enough

Australia’s home-building activity remains well below target to meet the government’s 1.2 million target. The slowdown is hitting all types of housing.

  • Michael Bleby

August

Cathedrals of the 21st century: Victoria Cross Station on the new Sydney metro.

How Sydney Metro’s architects made train stations people actually like

The “cathedrals of the 21st century” have united Sydney’s tastemakers and commuters, who marvelled at their new Metro line this week.

  • Michael Bleby and Campbell Kwan
The Devil’s Teeth Baking Co at the Embarcadero Centre in San Francisco.

Can free rent revive downtown San Francisco?

It has one of the bleakest office markets in the US, so its leaders came up with a plan to fix it.

  • Joe Gose
The great crested newt is endangered in some parts of Europe, but remains fairly common in England.

Blackstone’s boss has a multimillion-dollar newt problem

Stephen Schwarzman has told UK chancellor Rachel Reeves of how renovations on his $155 million country estate have been derailed by the small animal.

  • George Parker and Madison Darbyshire

Home building faces Productivity Commission probe

The new inquiry comes amid housing industry doubts that the Albanese government will achieve its goal of 1.2 million homes to be built over the next five years.

  • John Kehoe
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July

Aerial shot of the Paris 2024 Athletes Village.

A solution to the athletes village conundrum might be on the Gold Coast

Paris’ capital-light infrastructure plan for the 2024 Olympics has been a great success. But plans to turn the village into new housing faces a new hurdle.

  • Michael Bleby
Yours at an average $20,000 per square metre: Kokoda Property has received approval for its $1.5 billion Skyring Terrace project in Brisbane’s Teneriffe. 

New home approvals rise to six-month high

As two project approvals in Brisbane and Melbourne show, soaring materials and financing costs have made new projects unviable for all but the priciest homes. 

  • Michael Bleby
Tourist boats on the Douro River near the historic city centre of Porto.

Meet the mayor who sees Airbnb as an agent for good

It’s better to have a short-term rental in a house that’s been refurbished than to have a ruin, says the head of Portugal’s second-largest city.

  • Joao Lima
The three-bedroom townhouse at 3/29 Wheatleigh Street in lower north shore Sydney’s Crows Nest sold by private treaty for $2,915,000.

The unusual move that made this seller $4.8m

Most people with a large block to offload would do just that, but this vendor developed it – and made a much bigger profit in the process.

  • Michael Bleby

June

Sarah Kay takes over as Woods Bagot CEO from 1 July 2024.

‘Huge demand’: Australia’s largest design firm expands worldwide

Architecture practice Woods Bagot is focusing on growing demands for luxury and non-traditional consultancy services for design firms.

  • Michael Bleby and Patrick Duffy

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