Victoria is leading the nation in residential construction, and needs to look for opportunities for greater density in the established suburbs of Melbourne, said Planning Minister Richard Wynne last week at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia Forum: Planning for Growth event in Melbourne.

Wynne said the Victorian government has already received more than 400 responses to its apartment standards online survey, open until the end of July.

"For too long there seems to have been an unhealthy debate about protecting the leafy east, while allowing more untrammelled development in the west of the city," said Wynne.

"I hope we are going to get to the point where everyone appreciates there needs to be more residential development close to Melbourne and close to jobs and public transport. To this end, I look forward to seeing the research being led by Michael Buxton at RMIT, identifying brownfield sites in established suburbs that could easily be developed for high quality middle density housing. These could be old council depots, or light industrial sites and there are plenty of them."

The total value of residential building approvals in Victoria for the year to April was 18 per cent higher than the previous year, said Wynne.

The Housing Industry Association, in a forecast of dwelling commencements released in May, anticipates that the figures for Victoria over 2014-15 will set a record of nearly 60,000 housing starts.

Victoria's population is set to grow by around 100,000 people a year to almost eight million by 2050. 

Wynne said more than 55,000 hectares of land has already been identified for future growth through the Precinct Structure Planning program.

To date, 50 plans have been completed, in the order of 26,000 hectares, which will accommodate 217,000 dwellings and an ultimate population of more than 560,000.

Later this year, Victorian parliament will debate the Infrastructure Contributions Bill. Wynne's department is also working on the development of inclusionary zoning which will be trialled on government-owned land sold for development, an attempt to ensure a share of new residential construction on this land is affordable to low-income groups.

See also:

Designing density for blue-chip suburbs