Affordable Housing Development Contributions Strategy
The Shire is looking for innovative ways to tackle the growing housing crisis that is devastating families and individuals in our community. Every member of the Mornington Peninsula Shire community deserves a safe and secure home.
A draft Affordable Housing Development Contributions Strategy has been prepared to give clear direction for how the Shire will support and enable the delivery of more affordable housing on the Peninsula.
Affordable housing falls into two categories; one that operates in the private market with no government subsidy and the other is social housing.
Social housing is the focus for this draft Strategy – that is, housing that is provided to eligible families and individuals at a subsidised and affordable rent. Social housing is owned or managed by either the State Government or Registered Housing Agencies.
This draft Strategy aims to increase the supply of social housing through an Affordable Housing Development Contributions Scheme that requires mandatory contributions from new developments. The scheme can be delivered through a change to the Mornington Peninsula Planning Scheme.
This approach recognises social housing as essential infrastructure which new development should contribute towards. A similar approach is already applied on the Mornington Peninsula (and across Victoria) for other infrastructure, like public open space, with developers having to either provide public open space as part of their development or pay money to Council to provide it.
Development contributions towards social housing currently operate on a voluntary basis, with the amount negotiated on a site-by-site basis. A mandatory requirement, set out in the planning scheme, is more consistent and transparent.
The proposed scheme would require applicants for planning permits and land rezonings to contribute 3.3 per cent of the predicted market value of their development to social housing. The contribution rate would apply to developments that increase the number of dwellings, or increase industrial and commercial floorspace, on the Peninsula.
Developments exempt from the scheme would include:
- renovations to existing homes
- new homes that replace an existing home
- granny flats
- public buildings such as schools, community facilities, recreation facilities
- accommodation that already provides a community benefit, such as aged care facilities and rural worker accommodation
- small-scale extensions to industrial and commercial developments.
Why is this needed?
The Mornington Peninsula has a relatively small rental market heavily dominated by short-stay rental accommodation.
It is now significantly more expensive to rent a home on the Peninsula than in Melbourne and we have a shortage of approximately 4,716 social housing units across the Shire. If nothing is done to address this, that shortfall will grow to 8,051 housing units by 2041.
Our tourism and hospitality sectors are struggling to attract workers due to a lack of affordable accommodation. Low-income local residents are being forced out of the region – away from their families and support networks – or are being rendered homeless. A shocking 12 per cent of our homeless residents are sleeping rough each night, making us the fourth worst LGA in Victoria.