New data reveals number of vacant blocks of residential land in Tasmania: Labor

More than 15,000 blocks of residential land are laying bare across the state, with Labor saying it is only exacerbating the state’s housing crisis. FULL STORY >>

Master Builders Tasmania CEO Matthew Pollock. Picture: Chris Kidd

New data has revealed that there are more than 15,000 vacant blocks of residential land across Tasmania, which Labor says is exacerbating the housing crisis.

Figures obtained by the Opposition under Right to Information laws show there were 15,561 vacant lots of residential zoned land in the state in the 2022-23 financial year.

Huon Valley had the highest number of vacant blocks with 1452, followed by Clarence with 1170, Kingborough with 1083, and Glamorgan Spring-Bay with 1039.

Labor leader Rebecca White said the numbers were evidence that the state government’s 2014 promise to streamline the planning process hadn’t been fulfilled.

Labor leader Rebecca White.

“The planning reforms that this government promised in 2014 when they were elected to make it faster, simpler and cheaper simply haven’t eventuated,” she said.

“Nearly a decade on, we’re seeing an example with this data that demonstrates that people who’ve got residential zoned land haven’t been able to progress that to build on it.

“And that’s for a variety of reasons but primarily because the planning scheme is not working to support people who want to build a house, whether they be a developer or whether they be a mum and a dad.”

Ms White said property developers were telling Labor that one of the biggest hurdles they faced was Tasmania’s “complicated” planning system.

Master Builders Tasmania CEO Matthew Pollock said property-owners trying to build on their land were required to pay “tens of thousands of dollars in consultants’ reports” and had to grapple with duplicated planning processes.

“Recent forecasts by Master Builders Tasmania show that we need to build 3100 houses on average over the next decade in order to keep up with population growth and start putting some downward pressure on housing affordability by boosting housing supply,” he said.

Master Builders Tasmania CEO Matthew Pollock. Picture: Chris Kidd

“It is crucial that we can incentivise those who own land to develop that land so that we can meet these targets.”

Local Government Minister Nic Street said the government was committed to building 10,000 new social and affordable homes by 2032 but wasn’t “in the business of telling people what to do with their land”.

“However, we obviously want new blocks of land brought online as quickly as possible because we know, and we’ve said from the start, that actual supply is the best way to deal with the housing shortage that we’ve got at the minute,” he said.

“My understanding is that there are schemes available with government businesses that provide services … in terms of incentives to bring on blocks of land.”