The Allan Labor Government is determined to make it easier for people right across Victoria, including young people and families, find a place to call home, with a slew of housing announcements designed to encourage more homes to be built around places where people want to live.
We know that the best spots for more homes are around major transport links like train stations and tram spots. That's why the Allan Labor Government have announced 50 new Train and Tram Activity Centres, most of which are around stations in the inner and eastern suburbs, where we'll see more units, townhouses and apartments being built with increased density, making these suburbs more affordable for young people and families looking to find a home closer to their workplaces and their families.
Government will work with these communities to progressively introduce new planning controls – engaging with councils and locals to understand their priorities and help enhance what’s important about their neighborhood.
With greater density, we know we need more units, townhouses and apartments to be built. That's why as of now, homebuyers seeking to buy a unit, townhouse or apartment can get a greater stamp duty concession if they purchase one off-the-plan. This means that an average $620,000 apartment will see the stamp duty slashed from $32,000 to just $4,000 - a reduction of around 87.5%.
Of course, this alone won't stop the pressure of growth on our outer suburbs. We need infrastructure out here to keep up. That's why the Government has also announced another round of $150 million from GAIC contributions to fund infrastructure projects in seven growth council areas, including the City of Wyndham. Previous rounds have funded projects like new bus routes, purchasing land for new schools, and train station upgrades.
For other local government areas, different means of collecting contributions from developers are used, which vary from council to council, even street to street. The current system is complex and confusing. To solve this, the Allan Labor Government is also looking at ways to streamline and simplify the way that these contributions are collected, to make the system fairer for people who are looking to build more homes.
And if you are looking to build more homes, we're making that easier and fairer for you to do as well. The Allan Labor Government will also be looking to improve and speed up the process for subdivisions, allowing more homes to be built on the same property. That way, people will be able to build a second home on their property much quicker. In addition to this, if your home was built with serious building defects, it will soon be easier to get that work fixed, with the Government announcing it will replace the existing Victorian Building Authority with a new building watchdog with bigger teeth - the Building and Plumbing Commission, which unlike the VBA, will be able to investigate building works even after the occupants have moved into the building.
It's also fair that if we're building new houses, townhouses and apartments, that they should be designed to meet the standards that anyone would expect. That's why the Allan Government wants to reward builders who make well-designed buildings that reflect the character of their neighbourhoods, by fast-tracking approvals for buildings which use great designs. And as we build more homes, we want to make sure that residents have amazing parks nearby for their community to enjoy. We're even letting Victorians vote on where these parks can go.
For renters, there's a lot of good news for you too. We can confirm that the new rental dispute body, Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria, which was announced last year as part of the Government's Housing Statement, will commence operating in mid-2025. Also included in the Housing Statement last year was a new Portable Bond Scheme, allowing renters the chance to simply transfer their bond money from property to property. We can also announce that testing on this scheme will also commence next year, with the goal to have the scheme up and running by 2026.
Since forming Government in 2014, the Allan Labor Government has implemented over 130 rental reforms designed to make the market fairer for both landlords and tenants. These include banning most no-fault evictions, capping rent increases to once a year, and banning restrictions on pets without reason. We'll be building on these reforms with another set of changes designed to make life easier for renters and landlords. These include quality of life changes - such as banning charges to tenants for using rent-tech apps, and protecting tenant's rights to an electronic key or fob - as well as more substantial protections such as banning all remaining forms of no-fault eviction, and preventing landlords from making dubious bond claims without having the proper evidence. These reforms will be legislated in the Victorian Parliament over the next year to make things fairer in the rental market for people who do the right thing, and protect people against those who don't.
These changes are all about one thing - making housing more affordable and making it easier for Victorians, no matter where they are - to find a home in places where people want to live and where the best transport links are.
That is the fight - and we're up for it.
