Hopes for affordable housing up the creek

Kim Waters
State and federal governments have bungled their first chance to deliver affordable housing at Armstrong Creek, according to real estate agents and the opposition.
They said an absence of simultaneous land releases and failed funding applications would leave buyers typically paying around $500,000 to move into the growth area’s first subdivision.
Victorian Planning Minister Justin Madden last week gave the green light for the developers of Warralily “precinct” to release 500 allotments by ballot on June 19.
Mr Madden said he had approved planning scheme amendments to allow the subdivision of remaining land to “commence quickly”.
But Warralily spokesperson Mark Whinfield said other precincts were “still working” through the planning process for Armstrong Creek.
He was unsure whether the timing of other developers’ land releases would provide competition for Warralily.
“It’s not possible to project the sales rate or the development timeframes of other precincts.”
Mr Whinfield expected Warralily’s first blocks to sell for “the mid 100 (thousands) to high 100s”.
REIV Geelong chairman Daniel Lamanna said prospective land buyers had expressed “animosity” about the failure to deliver simultaneous land releases.
“People wanted a mass land release. I believe that eventually a bigger release will happen but for now it’s just the first 500 Warralily lots,” Mr Lamanna said.
“In the first stages it might seem like there’s more demand than supply but I believe eventually that competition between developers will happen.”
Mr Lamanna attributed the land release delay to development costs.
“Developers need to be able to finance these large-scale developments. They can’t release all the land at once because they need to stage it to keep their funding costs down.”
The Warralily release coincided this week with the failure of a second attempt to secure funding from a federal Housing Affordability Program.
Liberal Senator Michael Ronaldson accused Corangamite Labor MP Darren Cheeseman of spoiling an attempt to secure the funding for Armstrong Creek.
“There are one of two reasons why this funding has not come through – he is either an ineffectual member incapable of getting what the electorate needs or the funding will be presented in a cheap and cynical political stunt during the election campaign,” Mr Ronaldson said.
Geelong council planning portfolio holder Andrew Katos predicted the first residents at Armstrong Creek would pay up to $500,000 for their houses and land, given the estimate of allotment prices.
“That’s why it’s so important to get the Commonwealth funding assistance to speed up land release and I’m really disappointed Darren Cheeseman has failed twice to do this.”
Mr Cheeseman hit back, saying the lack of funding was “disappointing” but had “spurred us on to get a result”.
“We’ve had a rapid response and already met with senior council representatives to look at other options for housing affordability, particularly fixing the region’s housing land shortage, fast-tracking multi-developer competition at Armstrong Creek and getting more-affordable land on the market.”