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Melbourne has the least restrictive planning zones of any Australian capital, new research shows, but development advocates say the city’s inner-eastern suburbs remain largely locked down.
Pro-development group YIMBY Melbourne released its Australian Zoning Atlas on Sunday, finding an average of 81 per cent of residential land within 20 kilometres of Australia’s capital city centres is “highly restricted” with heritage protections, two-storey height caps and low-density zones.
But in Melbourne, only 45 per cent is deemed highly restricted – which YIMBY organiser Jonathan O’Brien credited with helping make it one of the most affordable city housing markets in the country.
“If you want to solve the housing shortage, the first thing you have to do is make it legal to build housing,” O’Brien said.
“What we’ve seen, especially over the past five years with COVID and then an enormous increase in construction costs, is that cities that are very highly restrictive have not fared well amid the shocks.
“Whereas Melbourne, on the other hand, has been able to absorb the pains of the last five years much better than any other Australian city, and that comes down to ultimately a more permissive rule set.”
The Australian Zoning Atlas found Hobart has the most residential land under highly restrictive zoning of any Australian capital (97 per cent), followed by Adelaide (92 per cent), Darwin (88 per cent), Perth (87 per cent), Brisbane (86 per cent), Sydney (81 per cent), and Canberra (74 per cent).
While O’Brien largely praised Melbourne for allowing greater density compared to other cities, he argued more could still be done.
“The high prices in the inner-east tell us something important, which is a lot of people want to live there, and the rules on the books do not allow them to do so,” he said.
The Australian Zoning Atlas ranked the inner-city councils of Boroondara, Yarra and Glen Eira in Melbourne’s top five local government areas for constraints on residential land development. The three LGAs each have at least 75 per cent of their residential land restrictively zoned, according to the report.
But any moves to further loosen planning controls in middle- and inner-ring neighbourhoods off main roads are likely to face stiff resistance from some locals.
In Surrey Hills, a recent proposal to redevelop one of Australia’s oldest orphanages – the former St Joseph’s Home for Boys – into a 76-dwelling complex with four-storey buildings has drawn the ire of those living in primarily single-storey houses nearby.
“We were pretty horrified,” Rhonda Liu said of the proposal close to her house.
“We’re not an activity centre. We’re not on a main road. We need more housing, but it’s just inappropriate.”
The old church site is in a zone with a two-storey height maximum, but the $62 million project has been submitted for fast-tracked approval by the state planning minister, who can override normal limits under the controversial Development Facilitation Program.
The project was deemed eligible as the developer committed to a 3 per cent contribution to Victoria’s social housing growth fund.
“Twisting the rules like that makes you a bit worried with how it’s going to turn out,” said Liu, who was also troubled by the threat of lost heritage.
The chapel will be retained, but Boroondara Council will soon vote on a proposed submission to the minister that raises concern with the proposed demolition of a school building and other works.
The Australian Zoning Atlas, meanwhile, found a national townhouse code allowing three-storey development on any non-heritage residential land could create 1.5 million extra homes in Melbourne.
“Three-quarters of our capitals’ land is locked down,” lead researchers said of the findings.
O’Brien, from YIMBY Melbourne, acknowledged other factors like construction costs also influenced housing supply, but argued zoning played a key role and warranted greater scrutiny.
“The legacy planners and whatnot who might critique research like this actually need to reckon with the fact that this is descriptive work – this is what the world looks like,” he said.
“[They] should maybe look inward and think about why the system is the way it is, and how maybe it should change.”
RMIT Professor of Environment and Planning Michael Buxton argued against “tearing-up” current zoning controls.
“We don’t have to adopt solutions that involve destroying what makes Melbourne a really liveable city,” he said.
The zoning research came as new data showed Victorian building completions in the year to March again fell short of the number required for the state to be on track to meet its target to build 800,000 new homes between 2023 and 2033.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures last Tuesday that revealed 54,842 dwellings were finished in the one-year period – the lowest number for the timeframe in a decade.
The number, however, was higher than New South Wales, which finished only 44,700 new dwellings.
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