A re-elected Nick Reece as Lord Mayor will help turbo charge the conversion of city offices to affordable homes with a series of practical changes, including slashing council rates for successful office-to-apartment conversions, that are set to create up to 4,000 new apartments right in the heart of the City of Melbourne.
The City of Melbourne would help facilitate the creation of thousands of new homes with planning incentives, technical support and financial assistance to help convert existing office buildings into new apartments.
We know that there is a housing crisis in Victoria, and more than ever Victorians are searching for affordable homes in areas that are close to where they work and where they can access the services they need and deserve.
By working with those that know this industry the best, that is exactly what this policy aims to deliver. Under the reforms, the City of Melbourne would:
- Refund any Planning Permit and Building Permit application fees for any office to residential conversion that creates more than 100 new apartments, and advocate to the State Government to waive statutory fees and levies associated with office-to-residential conversion.
- Slash Council rates for successful office to residential conversions with a rates mechanism set in consultation with industry and experts.
- Provide a dedicated end-to-end Planning and Building Assessment Service for any office to residential conversions, including a tailored pre-application service to cut through red tape.
- Propose changes to the National Construction Code to make it easier to use an old office building for retail or hospitality.
- Establish an Office Conversions Working Group with the Victorian Government to navigate regulatory hurdles and speed up Victorian Government planning approvals for large office to residential conversions.
- Introduce new planning incentives to facilitate office to residential conversions. This would involve an overhaul of the central city floor area uplift scheme to reduce incentives for new office floor area and introduce significant new incentives (such as increases in building heights) for adaptive reuse developments on a case-by-case basis. This can be achieved by adding adaptive reuses as one of the public benefits that allows uplift to the current planning instrument, C270.
- First Project Bonus for a pilot project to retrofit an office building in the central city, in partnership with the Property Council and Hassell Architects, co-funded by the City of Melbourne and the Victorian Government.
- First Five Bonus for the first five projects there will be a Lord Mayor’s grant related to how much upfront embodied carbon is saved in the project.
Under the plan, which would cost $4 million and is targeted in the CBD and Southbank, the City of Melbourne would target five office-to-residential conversions per year – creating up to 4,000 new apartments across the life of the four-year program.
Hassell Architects and the Property Council have identified 86 central city buildings that could be converted from office to residential.
The policy revives some of the big reforms from ‘Postcode 3000’ – the City of Melbourne’s award-winning 1990s planning policy, which helped transform the CBD into a great place to live and made it thrive for residents and traders.
Quotes attributable to Lord Mayor Nick Reece:
“We all know that it’s never been harder to find a place to live in the inner city – that’s why I will work with the property sector to convert vacant office buildings into thousands of affordable homes.”
“If elected Lord Mayor I will be someone who Gets Good Done – these practical changes will give more people the chance to buy a home and live in the city they love.”
“Being able to call Melbourne home is something I cherish – I want more people to be able to enjoy everything our great city has to offer, and this fully costed plan will help deliver just that.”
“I really want to get things moving, so we will offer special incentives in the form of financial grants for the first five projects.”
“This program will deliver 1,000 new apartments every year in central city locations – that’s 4,000 new homes with amazing amenity where all the best of Melbourne - from restaurants and parks to sports and galleries - are on your doorstep.”