Mark Lane has driven past a large empty lot next to a petrol station at 3 Whitehorse Road in Blackburn for more than 15 years, wondering when homes might appear.
The mayor of Whitehorse council in Melbourne’s east, which also includes Box Hill and Burwood, was on the council when a planning permit was first issued for this site in 2008 for 35 dwellings.That permit was extended three times but it eventually lapsed. In 2014, the owners were issued a different permit, this time for 115 dwellings.
In Melbourne’s inner north, Merri-bek Council is awaiting the construction of 2678 homes – including at 511 Sydney Road in Coburg where a permit was granted in 2012 for an eight-storey apartment building with 285 units. Despite multiple permit extensions, there are still no homes on the block. The developer of the site Banco Group was contacted for comment.
Lane said his council hoped the new tax would either “push these people to develop or they’ll divest and someone else will build”.revealed the Commissioner of the State Revenue Office may waive the tax if landowners have an “acceptable” reason for the land not yet being developed into housing, or if there is evidence of steps being taken to prepare the land for development – such as remediation.
But Lane said some of the examples in his council area couldn’t be pinned on fairly recent increases in build costs because the permits had been issued more than a decade ago, and other developments in the area had gone ahead without delays.
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