Thursday 17 August 2023
MEDIA RELEASE
Perth’s housing affordability under threat: Property Council challenges controversial park funding policies
Controversy over who should pay for Perth parks continues to hamper housing availability and affordability, according to the Property Council.
For more than a year, the Property Council has been actively voicing concerns over efforts by some local governments to impose financial contributions on developers of apartments and townhouses to fund public parks and open spaces.
Concern around the issue peaked earlier this year when consultation opened on draft Operational Policy 2.3, which, if endorsed, allowed such contributions across the state.
In challenging the premise of the draft policy, Property Council WA Executive Director Sandra Brewer questioned the scarcity of public open space across Perth citing the modern Australian suburban standard for open space as 28 m2 of park area per person.
“AHURI research shows Perth’s suburban core contains 3,181 ha of parks or the equivalent of 40 m2 of park area per person,” Ms Brewer said.
“Whilst 40m2 is the Perth core standard, some local government areas have far more public space, such as the City of Nedlands, where there is triple that, at approximately 119m2 of public open space per resident.
“Across the Town of Cambridge and the Cities of Bayswater, Perth, Stirling, Subiaco, and Vincent alone there is 1690.79 hectares of public open space which is equal to more than 56 Optus Stadiums.
“While the property industry wholeheartedly recognises the significance of public open space as a cornerstone of community infrastructure, we need to strike a balance with a policy approach that also considers the genuine need to facilitate a robust housing pipeline, upholding affordability and housing security for Western Australia.
“WA has an abundance of public open space and it is unfair to require new apartment and townhouse buyers to pay potentially tens of thousands of dollars to contribute to public parks, especially when the apartment buyers already pay for communal open space, required under design codes, to be included in developments,” Ms Brewer said.
In response to an increasingly tight housing and rental market, on 1 August, the City of Stirling showed leadership in supporting housing supply by passing a motion to review and place on hold local government fees and charges which add cost to development.
In contrast the City of Nedlands this week announced plans to implement a new policy and changes to its local planning strategy to require developers to pay for open space. The City aims to raise $64m in developer contributions, which in reality is simply another tax on new home buyers.
“Assessing the need for open space needs to occur beyond the arbitrary boundaries of local government areas, as they do not and cannot reflect each household’s access to public open spaces,” Ms Brewer said.
“Beyond the question of need, charging apartment buyers for public open space completely ignores the enduring financial contribution of the project to local government’s though rates.
“What this policy, and the local governments seeking to charge for public open space aren’t saying is that a development of 100 apartments with an annual rates bill of $2000 will contribute $1 million to the local government coffers within five years.
“Conversely, cost to local government remains notably modest. Often, services like waste management are outsourced to private contractors with councils either unwilling or unable to appropriately service the buildings. Regrettably, such instances do not translate to rate reductions for the residents involved,” Ms Brewer said.
As a lack of housing availability continues to impact many West Australians, the public sentiment is in favour of policies which enable more housing.
Recent polling conducted by YouGov for the Property Council in July 2023 found 82 per cent of Perth residents believe local government councillors should be approving more new housing developments, up by seven per cent since February 2023.
The polling also found just seven per cent of Perth residents believed buyers of newly constructed apartments or townhouses should be responsible for bearing the cost of public open space contributions.
“A lack of housing is the biggest barrier to WA’s economic success,” Ms Brewer said.
“It is baffling that at a time when there are hard-working West Australians without secure housing, there are still local governments inflating the cost of new apartments by more than $8500 for parks, instead of supporting more homes for their communities.
“Industry has welcomed confirmation by Minister Carey that the state government will not support any changes to the public open space policy that add regulatory burden and cost to the delivery of infill developments. However, despite this strong statement, local government continues to develop contribution policies without consideration to the impact on affordability.
“It is imperative that all levels of government listen to the community and work collaboratively to eliminate unnecessary barriers to housing supply,” Ms Brewer concluded.
ENDS
Media contact: Megan Lack | 0449 252 380 | [email protected]