Housing backtrack:Councils swoop on wiggle room in development plan

Housing backtrack:Councils swoop on wiggle room in development plan

New planning controls are due to be imposed in April,but documents reveal the government is prepared to allow councils another six months to devise their own plans around some train stations.

  • byMichael Koziol

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Is your suburb going higher? The 10 areas earmarked as hotspots for increasing housing density

Is your suburb going higher? The 10 areas earmarked as hotspots for increasing housing density

A street-by-street analysis reveals where the Allan government’s push to ramp up housing development is most likely to occur. See the maps.

  • byJosh Gordon andAdam Carey
Building commissioner takes control of defective Sydney apartments

Building commissioner takes control of defective Sydney apartments

David Chandler is personally overseeing undertakings to repair serious damage to a concrete slab in the buildings’ basement. Plus,check out where defect notices have been issued across Sydney with our interactive map.

  • byAnthony Segaert
Why the centre of Greater Brisbane shifted 80 metres in a year

Why the centre of Greater Brisbane shifted 80 metres in a year

As more people settled in Greater Brisbane,its population centre was also on the move.

  • bySean Parnell
Do planning rules really affect house prices? The answer is clear

Do planning rules really affect house prices? The answer is clear

There was a fierce slanging match on Q&A when Housing Minister Rose Jackson clashed with Max Chandler-Mather from the Greens. Who was right?

  • byMatt Wade
How tiny Japanese ‘pocket forests’ could cool Perth’s sweaty suburbs

How tiny Japanese ‘pocket forests’ could cool Perth’s sweaty suburbs

Originally developed by Japanese ecologist Akira Miyawaki in the early 1970s for Nippon Steel,Miyawaki forests have been adopted around the world to help offset rising heat in the suburbs.

  • bySarah Brookes
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Crackdown on dark roofs in plan for growth suburbs
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City life

Crackdown on dark roofs in plan for growth suburbs

Light-coloured roofs would be mandated on new homes on small lots in Melbourne’s growth areas under a proposed overhaul of the state’s housing code.

  • byAdam Carey
How rising sea levels could sink a grand plan to transform Frankston

How rising sea levels could sink a grand plan to transform Frankston

Melbourne Water will not back a masterplan to densify Frankston’s city centre over a lack of consideration of flood risks and coastal inundation caused by climate change.

  • byRachael Dexter
The off-the-shelf solution to the housing crisis needs to rip off red tape

The off-the-shelf solution to the housing crisis needs to rip off red tape

Less than 5 per cent of homes built in Australia are prefabricated. The federal government wants that to change.

  • byRachel Clun
Big stink at the fish market as ‘greedy’ tenants drag out design stoush
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Development

Big stink at the fish market as ‘greedy’ tenants drag out design stoush

A former fish market boss says the new billion-dollar taxpayer funded building is destined to become a white elephant:“You don’t need the Taj Mahal to flog dead fish.”

  • byHarriet Alexander
A car wash,a kebab shop and a VCAT spat over a block of flats

A car wash,a kebab shop and a VCAT spat over a block of flats

A proposed six-storey apartment in the inner north is the latest residential development to get bogged down by a planning dispute.

  • byCara Waters andJosh Gordon