This initiative proposes to speed up #approvals for #sustainable apartment and townhouse #developments deemed worthy enough by the Minister for Planning and the Office of the Victorian Government Architect.
So it was interesting to see this article in Domain last week which featured sustainable apartment projects, and in particular an apartment from the Ferrars & York buiding by HIP V. HYPE.
I’ve driven past it many times and it is a cool building, so I can see why it was proudly showcased by Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny as part of the Great Design Fast Track announcement.
But this luxury comes at a cost. You see, a 3 bedroom apartment in this sustainable paradise is on the market for the modest price of $2.1m to $2.3m! 💸💸
Sustainable living has never been so affordable.
I get that eco-friendly apartments are considered by some the epitome of comfort and sustainability, and that they will likely use less energy than alternatives. I’m all for building more sustainable and energy efficient housing (and we do).
But unlike the Victorian Government, I don’t pretend that doing so in apartments does anything to aid #housingsupply and #affordability.
Put simply, there are exceedingly few families who can afford the price of entry, notwithstanding the mooted savings and proposed reduction in energy bills.
In other words, saving $1,000/year doesn’t give you $1m of extra borrowing capacity.
Until we can build apartments, feasibly, for under a $1.0m (which we never will), such developments will be only for higher end buyers and remain out of reach for the vast majority of the market.
Which is why we need to continue speeding up much less expensive alternatives, even if they aren’t the perfect vision of hipster inner-city architects.