Planning restrictions and resistance at heart of housing shortage: town planner Martin Garred

Local councils need to come to the table and enable higher density housing in Australia’s suburbia to ease shortages and prices, according to top town planner Martin Garred.

Australia needs to embrace more town homes and duplexes in suburbia, backed by council planning regimes, in order to make housing more affordable and abundant in major cities.

Leading town planner Martin Garred says the “great Australian dream” of homeownership is only achievable if housing supply is diversified to add more medium-density housing to the mix, like in other major global cities.

Mr Garred’s research, in collaboration with the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, investigated housing approaches in Britain, the US, Denmark and Sweden and found that Australia’s land use zoning approach was limiting housing choice, restricting supply and increasing prices.

“Our planning system to date has restricted housing choice in large parts of our suburban neighbourhoods,” said Mr Garred, a director of Civity.

“Research abroad showed positive signs that Australia could adopt foreign housing approaches, but it would require bold leadership and community engagement to ensure success.”

Town planner Martin Garred. Picture: Supplied

In parts of the US, including Oregon and Minneapolis, planners have moved to restrict single-dwelling zoning by allowing unbiased small-scale residential development up to four dwellings citywide. Elsewhere, Britain has provided incentives for affordable housing, and social democracy models have been introduced in Europe that rely on government intervention.

“Oregon and Minneapolis in the US are great examples of where this zoning approach for housing diversity has been successful,” Mr Garred said.

Councils’ restrictive planning has long been labelled the blockage in the housing supply pipeline.

South Australian Planning Minister Nick Champion this month wrote to 68 councils, demanding they “proactively advocate” for land rezoning to manage future growth.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk this week announced tax concessions for developers that build affordable housing, and the newly elected Chris Minns-led government in NSW faces major housing challenges.

Housing Industry Association executive director of planning Mike Hermon said most states and territories had strategically sound planning objectives that encourage a steady pipeline of land supply to allow for the provision of affordable and diverse housing stock.

“The planning system often starts to fall apart due to over-regulation, typically applied at the local government level – an overburden of regulatory/statutory controls often impedes … housing stock,” he said.

Originally published as Planning restrictions and resistance at heart of housing shortage: town planner Martin Garred