Housing Crisis Solution for Melbourne?
It is amazing what you read in the newspapers from academics who have a “solution” to the so-called housing crisis.
One such “expert” wrote in “The Age” on 6th of May this year that one way to provide more land in the inner suburbs was to sub-divide the “traditional quarter acre block” into two and this will release lots more land for development.
Now lets see, “quarter acres”. An acre is 43,560 square feet or near enough to 4,000 square metres. One quarter of that is 1,000 square metres. If you can actually find a 1,000 square metre block within an 8 kilometre radius of the city that can be sub-divided, Planning Regulations at most inner city councils demand a minimum size allotment to be 500 square metres.
So if you are lucky enough to find a block big enough with a house located to allow for a side driveway, fine. But chances are the house is sited in such a way that a side drive way is impossible. Therefore you may have to demolish a house in perfectly good order to achieve this academic’s goal.
Impractical and uneconomic.
In most cases the inner suburbs owners are happy with their lot and will not sub-divide.
Further, how many 1,000 square metre blocks are available in Footscray, Richmond, South Yarra, Elwood, Northcote, etc., etc? Not many.
So the academics view is terrific, sounds good, but like so many commentators opinions, not backed up with research. How about some specifics?
The phrase “Quarter Acre Block” for the Aussie dream home actually means a block which measures between 560 and 700 square metres. A bit hard to sub-divide them when Planners have a say!!
