Ms O’CONNOR question to MINISTER for HOUSING AND PLANNING, Mr VINCENT
I have a follow up question. As you’d be aware, a number of medium-density housing developments in Hobart have been cancelled due to rising construction costs. I’m sure you’d agree this kind of development is exactly what we need to help resolve the climate crisis. Also, we know that urban sprawl is costly for the climate and places communities at more risk.
Do you acknowledge that there’s a problem? On the back of your previous answer, it sounds like you do. What changes are you considering instigating to encourage and support more medium-density development in our cities and towns?
ANSWER
Mr President, excuse me for turning my back to you, but I will address the member for Hobart.
We’re starting to do a fair bit of work with the medium and higher density. It gets quite complex once you go past three or four storeys in the tier level of the builder that’s required to go above that, and also with the fire and building regulations above what I believe is a fourth storey.
A while back they were talking about apartment buildings to be 7 or 8 storeys high. More of that conversation is the affordability of being able to have those places used for tenancy of an affordable nature which is more than it needs to be around the four-storey mark. I haven’t got completely through all that yet. I’m working on that because that’s very important in relation to the northern corridor where we’re talking about a much greater need for medium and higher density. I hope in coming weeks to meet with the Glenorchy Council to see where they are when isolating some of those residential places along that corridor to see where we may be able to start talking at that level of medium density.
Ms O’Connor – But in the city as well and surely, you’d be making uniform changes across the planning.
Mr VINCENT – Yes, we have not decided on any deadset planning changes at this stage while we’re still investigating that. It would be nice to talk to a couple of the builders who have hit that cost wall. Once again, we’re seeing with some of the things that Homes Tasmania – and I did meet with the builder at the weekend who was explaining that the cost if you go above a second line floor to be able to be in that affordable area of $575,000 to $615,000 for an apartment. I’m starting to understand some of those complications of building regulations versus costs for people to be able to afford to take those on.
Ms O’Connor – To finish off, you know we need a mix. You could have some apartments that are higher‑end and some that are more affordable within the same complex.
Mr VINCENT – Yes, certainly, and that blend is starting to come out. This is what I was touching on because I suppose I have been concentrating on the more affordable places, because that’s where there is a huge need at the moment. It is an area of housing – in crisis housing and youth housing and the lower end of affordable housing – that I haven’t been totally exposed to in my past, so I’ve been concentrating on that. However, we are seeing more and more evidence, especially with metro developments, where you have to have a blend, because of that cost factor as you go up.
It is a priority for Homes Tasmania to be effective in delivering the number of homes they have. We need to work through a lot of things there, but the density of blocks of land for one‑ and two‑bedroom units is just as important as the density of going up in the air as well, so it’s an area I am doing a lot of work on at the moment.
