Vic Gov names 10 suburbs to receive thousands of new homes

Last month, we shared news of the Victorian Government’s housing statement – which promises to deliver more than 800,000 new homes over the next 10 years.

Now, the government has confirmed the first 10 suburbs to receive some of those new homes: Broadmeadows, Camberwell Junction, Chadstone, Epping, Frankston, Moorabbin, Niddrie, North Essendon, Preston and Ringwood.

The confirmation of the list – which was first given in a September media release – came through recently released tender documents, which call for consultants to identify transport and community infrastructure needs for 10 ‘activity centres’.

According to the government, activity centres will ‘guide investment in the things a growing suburb needs like community facilities, public spaces and parks’.

To support the rollout, the Allen government is preparing to seize planning controls from local governments across metropolitan Melbourne (controversial, to say the least), arguing that in the last 12 months, the number of dwellings approved across the state fell by 26.1 per cent.

It cited extreme delays in Yarra Council and the City of Stonnington as examples of how the current planning system is broken. (Yarra’s average processing time has blown out to 188 days, and Stonnington rejected almost one in five planning permit applications it received.)

Future plans under the housing statement involve rolling development plans out to a further 120 sites across Melbourne, and replacing all 44 of Melbourne’s public housing towers by 2051.

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