Last week saw the release of Plan for Victoria, the Victorian Government’s anticipated plan to achieve its vision of more homes, more jobs, and great communities.
Within the plan, sit the revised housing targets for the City of Greater Geelong and broader G21 region. It targets over 128,000 new homes in Greater Geelong alone, with 60% of these homes to come from infill development. 77,600 of them to be exact.
That is a big adjustment for our city, and one that comes with a range of challenges and opportunities.
The Plan’s timing is important as we prepare for a Federal Election.
Last month the Committee for Geelong and G21 joined forces to launch an advocacy booklet – Unlocking the future of G21–, detailing three priority areas and the funding required for each.
One of these priorities focuses on Housing; specifically housing in central Geelong.
Enabling infrastructure such as water, power and sewerage is essential to the delivery of new housing developments, with more housing urgently needed to deliver affordable living across the region and drive population growth in Geelong’s city centre.
Central Geelong is the focus for several reasons.
It is close to transport connections, employment, and public spaces.
There is an existing planning scheme in place, the Central Geelong Framework Plan, providing some certainty for development.
Unlike other precincts, nimbyism will not be a concern. Indeed, development and population growth is welcomed in the CBD. Conversely, it provides time to warm-bath other precincts in Geelong into increased densification.
Perhaps most significantly, increased housing supply in Geelong’s CBD is central to the revitalisation of our city centre. More of our population growth happening in the city will have immense flow on benefits for business, hospitality and retail activity.
It brings more people into the CBD, increasing vibrancy and providing consistency of foot traffic to our city traders.
Despite some strong preconditions in place, right now a number of residential developments in Central Geelong are not getting off the ground.
To support the delivery of enabling infrastructure and improved urban amenity, we need $150 million invested in central Geelong to unlock over $1 billion in potential private sector investment.
Correcting market failure is a core role of Government. Housing projects not stacking up in a housing crisis is the definition of a market failure.
The private sector investment is ready. It’s time for Government to signal the market that it is ready.