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Today

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.

  • James MacKenzie

This Month

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.

  • Michael Bleby

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.

  • Michael Bleby
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.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
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.

  • Michael Bleby
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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.

  • Michael Bleby
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.

  • Michael Bleby

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.

  • Lucas Baird
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.

  • Michael Bleby

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.

  • Nick Lenaghan
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
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 2024

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 2024

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

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