and how it is eaten up by the media.
On Sunday, it was announced that “deemed to comply” (DTC) provisions will be extended to lots under 300m2. This extends existing approval exemptions for lots over 300m2 in most residential zones, and of the small-lot housing code in greenfield areas.
As my followers know, I am strongly in favour of DTC provisions in town planning – you should be able to get on with building if you meet prevailing rules, without local political interference.
✅Not only could it stop unnecessary delays on single dwellings, but it will also increase planner capacity for more complex developments. So this is indeed a positive step.
Why I come back to this being spin is that this only helps with knockdown-rebuilds – i.e. no net gain in (full-sized) housing. It doesn’t touch the #feasibility challenges for multi-dwelling development, such as reducing regulation/cost/tax, which is what is actually needed.
😎It will also be interesting to see the specifics of what the “compliant” rules will be on such dwellings; the tighter the lot, the more setbacks/open space/amenity/solar access provisions start to really matter to existing residents.
The other component of these changes will be to more easily allow a small secondary dwelling – the “granny flat” announcement of some time ago.
Granny flats aren’t the solution to housing supply, and from what I can ascertain, there has been minimal take-up of those secondary dwelling provisions.
💰Remember: if you build a secondary dwelling, you will now pay more #landtax in Victoria. Not exactly a great inducement to spend the money.
Left-hand, meet right-hand?
🤔 I find it continually interesting to observe how hard the message on new supply is being sold even though the measures are mostly ineffectual in delivering more housing people want/need.