New report says Victorian Government should take more control of housing developments

THE Victorian Government should play a much greater role in deciding what housing can be developed and where, to make homes more affordable, a new report says.

A new report is calling on the Victorian Government to take control of housing and development.

THE Victorian Government should play a much greater role in deciding what housing can be developed and where, to make homes more affordable, a new report says.

The Australian Population Research Institute study said the Government should also find ways to control the price of sites for infill and high-rise developments.

Report authors Dr Bob Birrell and David McCloskey said successive state governments had blundered by rezoning vast swathes of inner-city Melbourne for high-rise apartments and by promoting unpopular medium-density infill development in the suburbs.

Dr Birrell said this had been based on a false assumption that most of the demand for new homes would come from one- and two-person households who wanted to live in those types of housing.

“(But) the greatest need for additional dwellings is from new young households and recently arrived migrant households,” he said.

“And they need family- friendly housing.”

Though the number of smaller households would rise, mainly because of an ageing population, Dr Birrell said: “These older people already occupy around 50 per cent of the detached housing in Melbourne.

“And very few are downsizing, so it will be even tougher for young homebuyers to break into the market,” Dr Birrell said.

The report called for politicians to ignore the advice of planning “professionals” who were demanding no further expansion of the suburban boundary.

“While the housing bubble continues, new housing on the fringe is providing a crucial safety valve for affordable housing, and it’s helping to keep down the price of houses in the outer suburbs,” the report said.

Dr Birrell said governments should insist that urban renewal precincts like Fishermans Bend provide a diversity of affordable housing, and not deliver huge profits to landowners.

A separate report, co-authored by RMIT planning expert Professor Michael Buxton, says Melbourne could meet its housing needs without more high-rise towers and while limiting developments on the city fringe.

The city could comfortably double its population by 2050, housing half that increase in former industrial sites, car parks, and vacant suburban properties, it says.

That report, Melbourne at 8 Million: Matching Land Supply to Dwelling Demand, identifies hundreds of potential housing sites.

It is being considered by the state’s Planning Minister, Richard Wynne.

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