Urbis Recap: Another Week of Major VIC Announcements

The Victorian Government has released the Draft Structure Plans for the six Suburban Rail Loop East stations – Cheltenham, Clayton, Monash, Glen Waverley, Burwood, and Box Hill. The plans provide the framework to guide development, direct growth, and shape the economic and residential change expected in the areas surrounding the stations.

Alongside the Draft Structure Plans, a suite of supporting technical documentation have also been published, providing the public with their first look at how the plans will be implemented.

Urbis expects that the forthcoming planning provisions will provide further detail on a range of matters, including how community infrastructure is to be delivered and how properties will specifically be affected.

The release comes after recent planning announcements reaffirming the Victorian Government’s focus on precincts and activity centres with public transport access across Melbourne as prime locations to accommodate housing growth.

Consultation on the draft Structure Plans will commence on 17 March, closing on 22 April 2025.

Some of the headlines in each of the draft Structure Plans are identified below.

Infrastructure Victoria has released a draft infrastructure plan outlining priority policy, project, and program initiatives Victoria will need over the next 30-years.

The draft infrastructure plan for Victoria is focused around bridging the growing gap in critical infrastructure for Victorians, including social housing, healthcare services, and transport. The estimated total cost across all initiatives is between $78 billion and $96 billion, a significant scope of work for the State Government, for which the private sector will have an important role in supporting the delivery.

Subject to finalisation of the Strategy and commitments from the State Government, key opportunities for the industry in the short- to medium-term will be in supporting delivery of social housing, education facilities, and working with Local/State governments on potential incentives to encourage development.

The plan revolves around the following key themes and outlines 43 draft recommendations and 7 future options.

• Victorians have good access to housing, jobs, services and opportunities
• Victorians are healthy and safe
• Aboriginal people have self-determination and equal outcomes to other Victorians
• Victoria has a thriving natural environment
• Victoria is resilient to climate change and other future risks
• Victoria has a high productivity and circular economy

Major investment initiatives include:

We are cautiously optimistic on the opportunity presented by the six new sites. The sites appear to be well suited for residential development, in inner and middle-ring suburbs of Melbourne, and central locations in Bendigo and Geelong. Unlocking surplus government land is an important opportunity to deliver more housing in Victoria. Key to success will be aligning the feasibility assumptions of developers and the Valuer General in the context of any conditions placed on the sites.

The Government has identified a further six sites of surplus government land as part of the second tranche of the Small Sites program. The sites could deliver up to 350 homes, including a minimum 10% affordable housing component.

The six new sites that have been identified so far are:

• 72-84 Belmont Road West, Croydon South
• 377-407 Waterdale Road, Heidelberg West
• 40 Lavender Lane, Baxter
• 127-141 Grattan Street, Carlton
• Surplus VicTrack land on McLaren Street, Bendigo
• Surplus VicTrack land at McCurdy Road, Herne Hill, Geelong

This next stage of program will kick off with an EOI campaign in April and we understand that more sites will be added to the list. Development Victoria is seeking interest from developers with experience in delivering apartment and townhouse developments. Please get in touch if you would like to know more.

Urbis will be actively engaging with Housing Australia to understand the detail around submission requirements and evaluation criteria for the program, so watch this space.

Housing Australia has announced a new funding program that provides up to $700 million in grants and $300 million in concessional loans available to support eligible projects to accelerate the delivery of new crisis and transitional housing projects across Australia.

The NHIF CT funds can be used for:

• Construction of new crisis and transitional housing
• Acquisition and conversion of an existing residential building to crisis and transitional housing
• Mixed tenure developments will also be considered subject to certain criteria.

Similar to the HAFF and other State-based funding programs, a range of eligible applicants can apply to the EOI process, including:

• State/Territories
• Local governing bodies and local government/state/territory-owned corporation that is a constitutional corporation
• Registered community housing providers that are registered charities and a constitutional corporation
• An entity that has the primary purpose of improving, directly or indirectly, housing outcomes for First Nations people, and is a registered charity
• An entity that us a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that is a constitutional corporation.

Private developers can also have a role in the program, through partnering with community housing providers and state/local government.

Key dates include:

• Information sessions from late March 2025, individual sessions can be scheduled to discuss specific projects eligibility.
• Open for EOI submissions in mid-April 2025, and successful EOIs will subsequently be invited to submit a formal application.

Working closely with State and Territories, Housing Australia has identified state-based priorities for delivery, including target groups, locations, property types, service models and alignment with existing service system.

As promised last week, the Townhouse and Low-Rise Code was gazetted on 6 March under Amendment VC267. Clause 55 has been updated in all planning schemes, and the new provisions apply to all multi-residential developments up to and including three storeys. We now know:

• Permit applications will be assessed against deemed-to-comply standards
• No changes to notice of an application, but there will be no third-party appeal rights if all nominated deemed-to-comply standards are met.
• Nominated matters include neighbourhood character standards (street setback, building height, side and rear setback, walls on boundaries, site coverage, access, tree canopy, front fence), daylight to existing windows, existing north-facing windows, overshadowing secluded open space, overlooking, and overshadowing domestic solar energy systems.

Any application currently in the system will continue to be assessed under the existing planning controls. Clause 55 as in force immediately before the approval of the Amendment will continue to apply to:

• An application for a planning permit lodged before that date
• An application for an amendment of a permit under section 72 of the PE Act, if the original permit application was lodged before that date
• Any matter under consideration by VCAT.

The only way to have a current application assessed under the new provisions will be to withdraw it and lodge a fresh application.

All applications lodged from 6 March onwards will be assessed under the new provisions, however the entirety of controls won’t be in place until 2 April when we expect the new 4-Storey Apartment Standards (Clause 57) and Detached Home Code (Clause 54) to have been gazetted.