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Dear Fellow Property Investor,
Victorian government unveils 25 more areas where it wants to add high-rise living.
The Victorian government has named 25 more Melbourne areas where it plans to “shake up” planning rules to increase high-rise housing.
The locations — centred around tram and train stations — have been unveiled in addition to 25 locations announced in October, in the government’s latest plan to address housing supply and affordability.
Another 10 activity centres were part of an earlier pilot program, meaning there are 60 locations in total slated for fast-tracked high-rise development.
More than half of the new locations for housing “infill” in the form of increased high-rise development are in Melbourne’s inner and outer south-east, along the Cranbourne/Pakenham, Frankston, Glen Waverley, Sandringham and Alamein train lines.
The remainder of new locations are in train and tram zones such as Heidelberg, Coburg, Brunswick, Thornbury and Kew.
The government claims the widespread planning reforms will lead to more than 300,000 new homes.
“It just makes sense to build more homes close to these stations, close to these existing services,” Premier Jacinta Allan said on Thursday while visiting Noble Park, which is among the new locations.
Ms Allan said it was not enough to just build more homes, but to achieve that “we need to also shake up the planning system”.
Other recent state government housing announcements include increasing building height limits in 10 Melbourne hubs, building more townhouses and decreasing housing targets for some areas.
Ms Allan said housing density would be higher in the central area around public transport hubs, then gently decrease “as you move away from the core”.
Government says it will listen to councils and community;
Planning minister Sonya Kilkenny said all locations identified by the government for housing infill would be treated differently, drawing on councils’ existing strategic work as well as community consultation.
“I want to hear from the community because your voices matter,” she said.
“We want to hear from you and we’re listening.”
Community consultation on the first 25 locations is set to commence in April, with the next 25 to follow later this year.
“We hope to be able to have new planning rules in place for all 60 centres by early next year,” Ms Kilkenny said.
“This is about developing planning rules for the next 10, 20, 30 years so that community has certainty and industry has certainty about where homes can go.”
Greater Dandenong Mayor Jim Memeti backed the premier and planning minister as they announced the planning reforms in his area.
“If it means more housing and it’s in the right spot then we support it absolutely,” he said.
Opposition claims housing plan will threaten beloved neighbourhoods;
Liberal MP Richard Riordan labelled the government’s plans for 60 housing density zones in metropolitan Melbourne as “further destruction of what Melbourne cherishes most”.
“This is not a solution for the housing crisis in Victoria,” the Opposition spokesperson for housing said.
“Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, regional Victoria — not mentioned once as a solution for the housing crisis,” he said.
“Quite frankly, the war against developers, the war against home owners continues here in Victoria.”
He said Victorian developers and home owners had to deal with high taxes and over-regulation, discouraging development.
“We are simply not doing enough to encourage the market to build the homes that Victorians want,” he said.
He said the latest plans would put “fear” into home owners and tenants about their neighbourhood changing.
“It says to them, the city, the neighbourhood, the community that you have loved … is now under threat and will not be the same into the future.”