Launceston needs to streamline the development application process to help stoke building activity, according to the Tasmanian chief of the Property Council of Australia.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Brian Wightman said the application process for development applications passed through too many regulatory bodies and hampered investment.
“I hear stories regularly about particular people wishing to sub-divide, but it’s too slow to get the seven or eight bodies, like TasWater and TasNetworks, on board,” he said.
“We believe there should be a one-stop-shop that triggers all the requirements for a development application.”
The great opportunity in Launceston is shop-top living – it’s important they don’t have red tape restrictions in place which prevent it.
- Tasmanian executive director of Property Council Australia Brian Wightman
The suggestion comes after comments from Real Estate Institute of Tasmania president Tony Collidge, who warned Launceston would fall into a housing affordability crisis if supply is not increased.
Mr Collidge said the city needed to concentrate on creating inner-city housing by allowing for “higher density building”.
Inner-city living has been a focus for the City of Launceston over several years and was further encouraged by 2017’s City Deal.
“We’ve been talking about inner-city living for a few years now, and the UTAS move [to Inveresk] is one of those measures to encourage living closer to the city,” mayor Albert van Zetten said.
Mr Wightman said Launceston could accommodate inner-city living by developing empty spaces above CBD shopfronts.
“The great opportunity in Launceston is shop-top living – it’s important they don’t have red tape restrictions in place which prevent it,” he said.
Launceston Chamber of Commerce executive officer Neil Grose said developers were held back by cost of compliance.
“With local developers keen to move forward, it is important that work to ease the regulatory burden is finalised as soon as possible,” he said.
However, Ald van Zetten defended the council and said many of the regulations in place were handed down from a state and federal level.