Large swaths of land on Melbourne’s fringe will be released for development within 10 years, but experts say the slow pace of progress threatens housing affordability.
A developer’s billboard promoting a master-planned community with all the amenities lured Sameer Sharma to buy a house in the new Cloverton estate two years ago.
Sharma commutes to and from Melbourne’s CBD each day on the Seymour line, catching crowded and infrequent trains from Donnybrook station. There are four trains to the city in the two-hour peak between 7am and 9am, then an hourly train, at best, outside the peak. The last train home leaves the city at 9.43pm. It’s a sleepy country service for a booming suburban population.
But approval of new greenfields land has virtually stalled in Victoria. The government last approved a PSP almost three years ago, in March 2022.Planning experts say the government is deliberately stymying growth in greenfield areas, in part because it knows it cannot afford to build infrastructure such as train stations and schools at a rate that keeps pace with population growth.
The lack of available greenfields land in Sydney has helped push median house prices in the city’s growth areas 77 per cent higher than in Melbourne. Andrew Butt, professor in sustainability and urban planning at RMIT University, said the slowdown in the release of new land for housing could be interpreted in two ways: as an attempt by the state government to get its target to build 70 per cent of housing in established areas on track, and a recognition that it was failing to build infrastructure at a pace the growth areas need.
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