Rita Panahi: Jacinta Allan’s high-rise plan a hit to Lib voters and doomed to fail

The Allan government’s plan for high-rise, high-density buildings at suburban train stations is the sort of “sounds good on paper” idiocy championed by the bureaucratic Left that is doomed to fail in the real world.

To call state Labor’s latest housing policy hamfisted is an insult to ham and fists.

The Jacinta Allan government’s plan for high-rise, high-density buildings at suburban train stations is the sort of “sounds good on paper” idiocy championed by the bureaucratic Left that is doomed to fail in the real world.

Popping massive 20-storey towers next to train stations will negatively impact existing residents without in any meaningful way tackling the housing crisis. But Premier Allan has been indifferent to the concerns of locals in the “activity centres” she’s earmarked for such developments; that may have something to do with the first 25 locations being overwhelmingly in areas that traditionally vote Liberal, including North and Middle Brighton, Hampton, Sandringham, Armadale, Toorak, Malvern and Hawthorn.

Popping massive 20-storey towers next to train stations will negatively impact existing residents without in any meaningful way tackling the housing crisis.

“I’m determined to fight for those Victorians who need the government to fight back against this NIMBY-style approach,” Premier Allan said.

What an insulting way to dismiss the real concerns of constituents who will not only see the amenity and character of their suburbs adversely affected but some may also see their property prices go backwards.

The class warfare crowd may see property price drops as a win but it would be devastating for the majority of Victorians whose home is the most significant asset they own, and potentially disastrous for those who have borrowed heavily to enter the market.

Off-the-plan apartments have in many cases proven to be poor investments. Picture: Nicole Garmston

Victorians have shown over many years that they want to purchase houses and townhouses — a patch of their own land no matter how tiny — rather than newly built apartments. A wise choice given that off-the-plan apartments, that the Allan government is attempting to make more attractive to buyers via stamp duty discounts, have in many cases proven to be poor investments. Early Covid-era data showed 51 per cent of units purchased off-the-plan settled with a valuation lower than the contract price. And that trend was evident well before Covid’s impact. Between 2011 and 2016, more than 50 per cent of apartments purchased off the plan were re-sold at a lower price.

These stamp duty discounts are also wildly inequitable; a family buying a modestly priced house and land package to live in won’t qualify but someone buying an off-the-plan penthouse for $3m will qualify, even if it’s an investment. Work that out.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist