UDIA (VIC)

UDIA is the peak industry body for the urban development industry and its 2012 State of the Land Report highlights the insufficient levels of land supply in Australia's major cities.

Executive Director of UDIA (VIC), Tony De Domenico said, while official data has not been released for 2010, the Melbourne market experienced a high level of demand, with median prices continuing to grow strongly.

"Underlying demand remains high, with population rising in the year to June 2010 by 99,300. While this is a high growth rate of around 1.8%, it is slightly lower than the average growth rate for the five years to June 2010".

"Population growth of 99,300 is still an average of just under 2,000 people arriving from interstate and overseas and newborns every week."

Mr De Domenico said across the Melbourne metropolitan area in 2009, there were approximately 152,821 lots identified as broad hectare residential supply, 138,462 of which are within Melbourne's growth areas.

"This means that 90% of broad hectare development will take place in Melbourne's growth areas. There are 76,001 lots which are available for residential development within the growth areas constituting 55% of all stock."

Mr De Domenico said housing affordability continues to be the elephant in the room being under attack by complicated planning, conflicting environment policies, high government taxes and a lack of local government resources to process applications.

The median lot size of constructed broad hectare residential lots for growth area municipalities dropped from 655m² in 2000 to 520m² in 2009.

At the same time, the median price of vacant house blocks have risen substantially from $65,500 to $163,000 - a rise of 2.5 times.

Action which should be taken by governments in the UDIA national report includes:
1) Federal and State Governments should provide more funding to Local Governments and relevant state agencies for the financing of local infrastructure.
2) Each State Government should create a body to coordinate and monitor the timely, efficient and coordinated roll-out of infrastructure in both greenfield and infill developments.
3) State and Territory planning systems should be made consistent with COAG's nine criteria for future strategic planning of capital cities.
4) Through the identification of leading practice, State Governments should encourage local councils and relevant state agencies to reform the processes involved in assessing applications for development.

Download the State of the Land Report 

Media Enquiries:
Ron Smith, Corporate Media Communications, UDIA (VIC) - Mobile: 0417 329 201