Housing Quarters’ Post

Last week, the Victorian Government released their draft statewide housing targets. In an ambitious target, 2,001,000 additional dwellings are proposed to be constructed between now and 2051 across Metropolitan Melbourne – being almost double the number of existing dwellings currently constructed in Metropolitan Melbourne.  While the draft housing targets are a welcome announcement for the property development industry, there is no clarity on how these targets will actually be met to ensure that this housing stock is constructed within these timeframes or the preferred typology and siting of the dwellings. The Government wants local councils to 'unlock space for more homes by proposing changes to local planning rules', with the intention of giving developers 'the confidence they need to get on and build'. Gadens Partners Andrea Towson and Brihony Boan, and Lawyer Anthony Tchakerian consider what gaps needs to be filled, to ensure these targets can be achieved. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gAC_BuNp #Auslaw #Housing If you found this insight article useful and you would like to subscribe to Gadens' updates, click here: https://lnkd.in/gwqNGne

An interesting debate about housing supply vs property rights unfolding in the City of Port Phillip. The Age reporting on several cases where older blocks of flats are being consolidated and demolished, to be replaced with a single house or fewer dwellings than before. It's an interesting policy discussion, with me remaining on the side of not prohibiting consolidation or enforcing the retention of minimum dwelling numbers where someone is able to afford the site. Others have a different view: "Patrick Fensham, 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 Planning Institute of Australia’𝘴 𝘝𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘥𝘰𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘩𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴." What these cases also reveal is a phenomenon which will impact the supply of smaller-scale #development for some time yet. In short, higher multi-dwelling development costs are resulting in the underlying land value for many smaller sites being higher as a single residential dwelling than the the value a developer will pay. This means sites otherwise zoned for potentially incremental development, particularly in NRZ and GRZ, will in many cases remain or be redeveloped into single dwellings. 🤔𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗱𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗥𝗟 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗮𝘅𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗱. https://lnkd.in/gchFB_Q3 Sophie Aubrey UDIA Victoria Department of Transport and Planning

Developing better standards for apartments, then increasing their supply by expanding use of the Residential Growth Zone will unlock more housing choices for Victorians and make better use of our infrastructure. The Business Council of Australia is calling for extensive rezoning across Melbourne and major regional towns to encourage more medium- and high-density housing to be built near infrastructure and services Annika Smethurst reports in The Age today - https://lnkd.in/gYcvEzec Making greater use of the existing Residential Growth Zone mechanism in areas near public transport and services would be a good start. And we should combine this with clearer standards and design guidance on low-rise apartments in the Victorian Planning Provisions. Check out 'Our Home Choices' from Infrastructure Victoria for more detailed evidence, analysis and policy recommendations - https://lnkd.in/eeaNi4rb #housing #choices #zoning #reform #infrastructure

One of the policy changes that Infrastructure Victoria can make to improve housing affordability and fairness is to ask for rental property investors to pay commercial property taxes. As a business activity it seems only fair they pay business taxes. The additional taxes can be used to fund more affordable housing and social housing infrastructure.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has completed a study on the housebuilding market in Great Britain, highlighting fundamental issues that hinder the construction of new homes. Key findings include the problematic and complex planning system, speculative private development limitations, and concerns over estate management charges and new home quality. The CMA criticises the slow and unpredictable planning process, the speculative development model that doesn't meet community needs, and the trend of developers imposing high and opaque estate management charges. Additionally, the quality of new homes has been questioned, with an increase in snagging issues reported by homeowners. The CMA has also initiated a Competition Act investigation into eight housebuilders for potential information sharing that could affect competition. Recommendations for improving the market include streamlining the planning system, enhancing consumer protections, and encouraging local councils and housing associations to lead non-speculative housebuilding. #housingcrisis #housebuilding #housingshortage

This week I spoke to Gus McCubbing at The Australian Financial Review about how planning delays are impacting upon the supply of housing in Victoria. Whilst planning is only one part of addressing the critical housing shortage, it is important to shine a light on how slow the process can be. In an environment with higher interest rates and construction inflation, delays can be the difference between projects finishing or being abandoned mid way. Tim Gurner of GURNER™ Group who was also interviewed for this piece, estimates that less than half of the 51,000 new dwellings approved in Victoria last year will actually get built. This is despite the Victorian State Government targeting 80,000 new homes a year. We need a reformed planning system that is up to the task of making good decisions, on an increasing number of medium density projects, in much quicker timeframes. #housingcrisis #missingmiddle #betterplanning

Building approvals in Australia at decade lows — what does this mean for the housing crisis? Decade-low building approvals could spell disaster for the future of the Australian government's ambitious plans to tackle the worsening housing crisis, property experts say. New statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show the total number of dwellings approved in April fell by 0.3 percent from the month prior. Approvals were also down in three out of the seven states. #housing #buildings #theglobalbpo Full Story: https://lnkd.in/gfE9a_Xy

Niall Moore would like to recommend two policy proposals I have developed to improve housing affordability in New Zealand and Australia: 1. #RatesEquity - this simply means that all properties within a region or jurisdiction pay the same rates charge or property tax. This would end the system where small businesses pay four times as much as residential properties. It can also mean that developer contribution charges (a kinf of rate or property tax) are rolled up into the single annual rates charge for everyone. Target rates should also be abolished and the costs rolled up into the single charge. What will the effect of such a change be? Developing and selling new properties will be cheaper, meaning new houses will cost less. Businesses will pay lower rates, no targeted rates and all other residential property owners will pay slightly more. 2. #TwoOCR Policy. This is a policy for the Reserve Bank to apply two separate OCR rates according to the purpose of the lending from banks. The lower OCR (At current rates this OCR could be 2.75%) would apply to productive lending which includes property development. All other lending could be at a higher OCR of 4.75% for example.

An interesting article here from Savills on the challenges facing affordable housing in London, due to the reduction in the ability of Registered Providers (RPs) to take on Section 106 affordable homes. How will this alter the required approach to planning for residential schemes? Find out by reading more on this subject here: https://lnkd.in/eXenZJhq #AffordableHousing #PropertyDevelopers #ResidentialSchemes

The Competition and Markets Authority has called for significant intervention to ensure the construction of more high-quality homes while also announcing an investigation into potential anticompetitive practices among major housebuilders... #antitrust #housingcrisis #competitionlaw #realestate #construction