I like the policy but it won't improve housingsupply as much as Victorian Government might like.
2700 lots were splt into two across VIC in 2023. This will be lower in 2024 as costs rose whilst prices stagnated, and 2025 unlikely to improve much.
Streamlining approvals is great but won't materially increase volumes. Especially as detailed criteria will likely limit many cases.
To quote me in The Age:
Maxwell Shifman… said homes on subdivided properties were quick to build, delivered a good space-to-price ratio compared with apartments and had a relatively low impact on neighbourhoods.
But he said the difference to supply would be incremental at best.
Shifman said loosening the policy to two occupancies was unlikely to create homes that were affordable to most buyers, with four to six smaller dwellings on a standard residential lot needed to bring prices down.
“It’s not a solution for delivering the tens of thousands of homes needed in established areas…”
“The only feasible way to achieve what the state government wants from townhouse development, at price points that bring more people into the market, and at the scale it needs, is to facilitate it efficiently on larger sites.”
Patrick Fensham from Planning Institute of Australia echoes:
…two-lot subdivisions were a popular and attractive form of development, by avoiding body corporates while continuing to offer larger dwellings with private parking and open space.
But he said that would only double density when in some cases, five times the density would be a better outcome.
Stephen Glackin agrees larger sites are needed:
“If you don’t have site assembly, you’re not going to get really anything off scale on the single suburban lots”
🤔Lots is needed to tackle #housingaffordability. More direct intervention and land supply is needed now before things get much worse.