Last week Infrastructure Victoria released Our home choices — How more housing options can make better use of Victoria’s infrastructure. The report details policy actions to improve the supply and variety of housing in Victoria (with a heavy focus on Melbourne). This week the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation released its State of the Nation’s Housing 2022-23 report, which documents housing supply, demand and the growing gap between the two.
The reports offer interesting perspectives for Greater Shepparton and our chronic lack of housing for a growing population and workforce.
In summary, IV is encouraging government and policy makers to address the barriers to higher density development in older, established suburbs. There are some proposals for planning, but the majority of IV’s recommendations focus on policy distortions and unintended consequences. For example, the impact of incentives for new home greenfield construction that shifts the numbers in favour of new development and away from higher density redevelopment in existing areas where there is already access to key public and community services.
Higher density living isn’t for everyone, but it is preferred by some, including a growing number of residents in regional cities. A quick online search of regional city housing markets in Ballarat, Bendigo and Wodonga well and truly debunks the myth that a small house means a small income or a small lifestyle.
The reports have arrived shortly after our council concluded community feedback on a proposal to release the High and Rowe Sts car park for housing development, including affordable housing, while retaining the ground level parking.
The consultation phase is the first stage in a two-step process — a second step occurs if or when council receives a proposal to develop the site. However, the first stage provides a clear signal to the market, and potential developers and investors, that the site is available for development, including affordable housing options.
Which leads us to the question, what is affordable housing and how is it different to housing affordability?
Each year the Victorian Government updates affordable housing income ranges for the Planning and Environment Act 1987. According to the latest update for regional Victoria, the income ranges’ upper threshold for a family (single or couple) with dependent children is an annual combined income of $97,980 and for a single adult the threshold is $46,660.
Greater Shepparton’s median weekly incomes are $712 (equivalent to $37,043 annual salary) for an individual and $1759 for family (equivalent to $91,468 annual salary). Both medians are below the affordable housing thresholds, which means for more than half of Greater Shepparton’s households, residents and workers, housing affordability and affordable housing go hand in hand.
Household incomes vary for all sorts of reasons. Whether individuals and families work part time or full time, are combining study or apprenticeships with work, beginning their careers, caring for others, or transitioning to retirement, they are vital to the workforce and the ongoing economic strength of Greater Shepparton.
Understanding that the majority of Shepparton’s households are within the affordable housing thresholds should be a catalyst for Greater Shepparton doing what it does best — finding local solutions to local challenges that others across the state and the nation can learn from.
We know Greater Shepparton needs about 400 new houses a year for the next decade. We know our households are changing and in the next few years single person households will be the most common, followed closely by couples without children, and couples with children. We know that more than 80 per cent of our relocating professionals would prefer an apartment or townhouse in the CBD. We know that more than 80 per cent of our current housing stock is three-bedroom or larger. And this week’s NHFIC report indicates that average house deposit has increased from around 60 per cent of an annual income in the 1990s to more than 110 per cent today.
Our challenge is to not just respond to these changes, but to seize them as an opportunity to broaden our housing mix to provide well-designed and well-located housing options that align with a wider range of buyers’ and renters’ preferences and pay packets.
– Linda Nieuwenhuizen is the chief executive of the Committee for Greater Shepparton