Mortgage Repayments

Block on Governments Expansion

Though Melbourne’s state parliament is keen in supporting an expansion project in their urban territory, the Opposition and the Greens have signified their intention of blocking the project.

This expansion project has been tied to the introduction of a growth areas tax that will shoulder the multibillion-dollar expenses for new schools, hospital and public transportation modes. This project will also sustain suburban housing growth.

However, the opposition is against the $95,000 a hectare growth areas tax on reclaimed Melbourne urban territory and they are ready to put the expansion to a halt if necessary. Also, David Vorchheimer, president of the Planning Institue of Australia’s Victorian, stated that though the growth areas tax is needed, its breakdown must be detailed.

The building industry is not happy with the new tax as well. To solidify their stand, the Property Council said that they would settle with zero boundary expansion until the growth areas tax is scrapped.

Opposition planning spokesman Matthew Guy stated that their group has serious concerns about this tax even though they have offered to negotiate with the state parliament ten months ago. On the other hand, the Greens’ Greg Barber told that his party without further scrutiny or analysis, they will not support the urban boundary growth project and the new growth areas tax.

Housing Industry Association Victorian Executive Director Gil King also stated that the proposed tax has a questionable distribution breakdown especially because around 50 per cent of it will be unnecessarily devoted to administration costs.

A report by the Melbourne City Council and the government showed that the cost of building new houses at Melbourne’s boundary is hundreds of millions of dollars more expensive than building in established suburbs due to the extra cost of planning and infrastructure. The report also states that building in established suburbs can be equated to savings of above $300 million for every 1000 housing units.

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