Victorian housing targets: Geelong suburbs slated for heavy lifting on ambitious infill targets
Find out which Geelong neighbourhoods could step up to help deliver higher density living to meet an ambitious target to build almost 130,000 new homes across the city by 2051.
Established Geelong suburbs will have to do the heavy lifting for new homes under ambitious revised targets to double the city’s housing stock by 2051.
Areas around Belmont’s High St, Waurn Ponds train station, Highton Village and Bell Park have been singled out as potential hubs for infill development as low to medium building is scaled up.
The Victorian Government’s revised targets aim to have 77,500, or 60 per cent, of Geelong’s new homes built in established areas.
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Another 51,100 dwelling are earmarked for greenfield sites.
Overall, the number of new homes Greater Geelong needs to build has been cut from 139,800 to 128,600, but the municipality still shoulders the highest target in Victoria.
UDIA Victoria Geelong committee chair Nick Clements said the development industry welcomed the ambitious target but was concerned there was a lack of detail about how to deliver the “whopping” number.
He said the plan was inconsistent with the City’s existing Settlement Strategy, which aims for a 50:50 split between greenfield and infill development.
“At the moment we are seeing about 80 per cent of new homes in greenfield areas and 20 per cent in established areas so it’s going to require a substantial shift in mindset for end consumers to be able to tolerate living in higher density product in Geelong,” he said.
Mr Clements said while the Central Geelong Framework Plan aimed to deliver 16,000 new inner city homes by 2050, a big policy shift was needed to make up the 60,000 shortfall.
“There are a number of discrete precincts where they have identified as suitable for additional housing growth but those precincts are going to expand considerably,” he said.
“There’s going to have to be areas such as High St, Belmont and potentially Waurn Ponds, where there will need to be a substantial uplift in density.
“The consequence of all this is clearly there’s going to be a change in character to a lot of our suburbs.”
McGrath, Geelong director Jim Cross said there was already a trend towards low density development in key suburbs.
“I think the only way this model works is if they are done in specific locations in micro markets, for example right near the Highton shopping hub or right near Pakington St in Newtown or Geelong West,” Mr Cross said.
He pointed to the first four-storey apartment building in Halstead Place, Geelong West, as a successful example that had resold strongly.
“It might be that we start to venture out further with these projects, say to Bell Post Hill or Bell Park, near one of the shopping centres,” he said.
City of Greater Geelong executive director placemaking Tennille Bradley said the region would need significant state and federal investment in services and infrastructure to hit the target.
She said it was committed to working with the State Government to increase housing supply.
“We made 35 recommendations in our submission last year, detailing many challenges that remain an issue with the final revised target, such as reviewing the impact of rate capping on our capacity to meet community need, delivering infrastructure, services and facilities in line with population and housing growth, and resourcing to deliver new housing supply,” Ms Bradley said.
“We have called for a state-based approach to deliver affordable and social housing targets, and more investment in integrated transport solutions and the regulatory framework in the planning and building sectors.”
She said central Geelong offered the biggest opportunity for infill development but, despite generous planning controls and many permits being issued, only a small number of residential projects had so far been built.
The council also has frameworks to develop the strategic Saleyards precinct and South Geelong.
On the greenfield front, up to 44,000 homes are slated for the Northern and Western Geelong Growth Area.
But Villawood Property executive director Rory Costelloe said excessive red tape had seen planning for new estates there drag out for years.
“The timing has been elongated and the costs have escalated so it’s making it very hard to make it plausible to launch the land,” he said.
Originally published as Victorian housing targets: Geelong suburbs slated for heavy lifting on ambitious infill targets