How Victoria’s biggest planning reforms in three decades are changing what property owners, buyers and developers can do with their land

Most property owners have no idea what the planning controls on their land actually allow, let alone what those controls might allow in the future. On this episode of Property, Straight Up, host Warwick Brookes sits down with Laurie Rigoni, founder of Terrain Consulting Group, to unpack the planning reforms currently reshaping property value right across Melbourne. With more than 35 years of experience in urban and statutory planning, Laurie has spent his career helping property owners, developers, architects and investors navigate approvals, subdivisions, rezoning and development opportunities across Victoria. And by his own account, what is happening in the planning system right now is unlike anything he has seen before.

A Career Built on Reading the Future

Laurie’s path into town planning grew out of a longstanding interest in geography and society, and how those forces shape the cities we live in. Decades later, what still draws him to the work is its variety. Town planning, he explains, is one of the few professions that genuinely looks to the future, drawing together demographics, population growth, economics, government policy, legislation and architecture into a single discipline. As he puts it, a town planner knows a little bit about everything.

That breadth is exactly why so many property owners underestimate the role planning plays in their own situation. Laurie’s biggest observation after 37 years in the industry is a simple one: it is what you do not know that you should know. A block of land might sit in a growth area without the owner realising its full potential. A large parcel might carry a single dwelling covenant that quietly limits what can ever be built on it. Or, more recently, a property might fall within a rezoned area that has just received a significant uplift in what it can accommodate. Understanding both the current controls and where policy is heading, Laurie says, is genuinely valuable knowledge, whether you are planning to develop, extend or simply hold.

The Biggest Reform in Thirty Years

Laurie is direct about the scale of what is currently happening across Victoria. In his words, this is the biggest change to hit the state’s planning system in 30 years. The Victorian Government has set a target split of 70 per cent of new housing in established metropolitan areas and 30 per cent in growth areas, and has rolled out housing targets to every council across the state, metropolitan and regional alike, to be achieved by 2050.

Central to this shift is the Train and Tram Zone Activity Centres Program, which has identified 60 activity centres across Melbourne where the government wants to see significantly more multi level apartments, mixed use development and growth on the fringes of established suburbs.

What Rezoning Actually Means for Your Land

For anyone who owns a block within or near one of these activity centres, the practical impact can be dramatic. Under Victoria’s typical General Residential Zone, height is capped at three storeys, or around 11 metres. Land within roughly 800 metres of an activity centre is being rezoned to what is called a Housing Choice and Transport Zone. In the first 400 metres or so, that becomes Housing Choice Transport Zone One, where the old three storey limit can lift to between four and six storeys, depending on lot size, generally around 1,000 square metres for the higher end of that range.

The uplift extends further out too. Land in the Neighbourhood Residential Zone, previously capped at two storeys and nine metres, now defaults to three storeys, rising to four storeys on larger lots. Laurie is clear that this is not limited to land inside activity centre boundaries. Councils right across metropolitan Melbourne have had residential land rezoned to unlock significantly more development potential than existed even 18 months ago.

Where the Growth Is Concentrated

Strategically, the activity centres are heavily weighted toward Melbourne’s rail corridors, particularly in the south east, with comparatively less activity in the northern suburbs. Locations along these corridors, close to train stations and public transport, are where Laurie expects to see the fastest uptake. Warwick raises Box Hill as a case in point, where major sites including the former VicRoads property and a large supermarket redevelopment are already underway in an area that arguably already carries significant traffic pressure.

Laurie acknowledges the tension. Government maps are publicly available showing exactly where these corridors and zones apply, which gives owners, buyers and developers a genuine starting point for identifying opportunity, but it does not resolve the underlying question of whether existing infrastructure can support the scale of change being planned.

The December 2024 Car Parking Changes

One of the more significant, and least understood, shifts came into effect on 18 December last year, when the government changed car parking provisions for new development. In many cases the required parking rate has effectively halved. Close to train stations and well serviced commercial areas within activity centres, it would not be unusual to see apartment developments approved with zero on site car parking, on the assumption that residents will rely on trains, trams, buses and share car schemes instead.

For townhouse developments, the shift is just as significant. Before 18 December, a three bedroom townhouse required two car spaces, and one and two bedroom dwellings required one space each, with additional visitor parking on top. Under the new rules, that has dropped to 1.2 spaces per dwelling in many cases, sometimes just one, with the visitor parking requirement removed entirely.

Warwick raises an obvious concern for established, inner city streets that already struggle with parking at night. Laurie’s view is that the market will ultimately decide. If a development genuinely has no car parking, it may simply attract buyers and renters who do not own a vehicle. But he also notes that many of Terrain’s own clients, even with the lower statutory rate available to them, are choosing to provide more parking than the minimum, because that is still what the market is asking for.

If You Are Selling, Know What Your Site Can Really Do

One of the more practical threads in the conversation is what all of this means for vendors. Warwick points out that most owners, and many real estate agents, have no idea these changes have occurred or what potential a site now holds, which is why so many listings still fall back on the vague subject to council approval line in the advertising copy.

Laurie’s advice is straightforward. If time allows and a vendor wants to maximise their price, it is worth investing in planning advice before going to market. Rather than a generic subject to council approval line, a listing can say prime development site within an activity centre, or plans and permits approved for four dwellings. Where the numbers stack up, obtaining a planning permit before sale, even for something as simple as a dual occupancy, can meaningfully lift what a property achieves.

He also stresses that site potential is about far more than land size and frontage. Slope, easements, covenants and the title itself all need to be checked, and increasingly, so does what is growing on the block.

The Trees You Cannot Assume You Can Remove

Tree canopy has become one of the most significant, and most overlooked, constraints in the current system. Some councils have long had vegetation protection overlays or significant landscape overlays, particularly on the fringes of Melbourne where tree cover is part of the local character. Others introduced their own local tree laws to regulate trees not otherwise covered by planning controls, generally based on height and canopy width.

A key distinction, Laurie explains, is process. A planning decision can be contested at the tribunal with expert arborist evidence. A local tree law decision made by a council’s own arborist generally cannot, beyond an internal appeal back to the same council, with the Supreme Court the only avenue left after that.

In October last year, the state government introduced a further change that caught much of the industry by surprise: Clause 52.37, a statewide tree provision. Under this clause, if a tree within the first six metres of the front boundary or the rear 4.5 metres of a property is five metres or taller, four metres or wider in canopy, and has a trunk diameter of around 500 millimetres measured at 1.4 metres height, removing it now requires a planning permit. The legislation is worded strictly enough that even trimming a branch to bring the tree under that four metre width threshold is caught. It applies to any tree, native or otherwise. As Laurie notes, even a lemon tree over 5.2 metres technically triggers the same assessment, and a council arborist will then have to weigh up whether it carries any arboricultural value.

The practical challenge is timing. A buyer with a long settlement has the chance to commission a survey and arborist assessment before they are locked in. Anyone without that luxury needs to make the best call they can, which is exactly the kind of pre purchase due diligence Laurie encourages every buyer to consider.

Faster Approvals, Less Room for Objection

Alongside all this new complexity, the government has also been working to speed the system up. One of the most significant changes has been the removal of neighbourhood character as a planning consideration, a factor that historically drove much of the subjective back and forth with council officers over setbacks, materials and colours. That subjectivity is now largely gone, in favour of more prescriptive, standardised provisions designed to support faster, more efficient construction.

The government has also introduced deemed to comply provisions. Where a development is designed to meet the relevant standards, Clause 55 for three or more dwellings, or Clause 56 for subdivision, a planning permit is still required, but the application is exempt from public notification and third party appeal rights to the tribunal. For two dwellings on a single block, mixed provisions introduced in August 2025 go further again: if the design meets the deemed to comply standard, councils are required to issue a permit within ten statutory days. As Laurie puts it, you could go to Europe and be back before the permit lands in your mailbox, a level of speed not seen since the early 1980s, when dual occupancy was briefly an as of right use.

Laurie is candid that removing neighbourhood character raises a fair question about design outcomes, particularly for smaller, budget conscious projects where corners might be cut. His own view is that competitive market pressure will still push most developers and architects toward designs they are proud of, though heritage areas remain an exception, with the same high bar as always applying there.

The upshot across the industry has been a significant drop in matters proceeding to the tribunal, which Laurie sees as a genuine positive for certainty, even if it does mean less scope for objectors to have their say.

Negative Gearing, New Stock and the Rental Market

The conversation turns to the federal budget and its implications for negative gearing, an area Laurie has been thinking through carefully. His read is that limiting negative gearing benefits to new dwellings could push investors toward newly built stock rather than existing housing, which in turn may encourage more owners to move quickly on developing sites they might otherwise have land banked.

Warwick raises the flip side. If new stock becomes meaningfully more expensive to buy, that could push up prices across the board and make it harder for owner occupiers to get into the market. There is also a real question mark over rental supply, if landlords are divesting existing properties due to land tax changes at the same time as negative gearing incentives shift away from established housing. Laurie is careful not to predict outcomes with certainty here. As he puts it, planning tends to be apolitical, and the true impact of major tax and legislative change is rarely clear until years down the track.

Where This Leaves Melbourne in 10 to 15 Years

Asked where all of this leaves Melbourne’s property landscape over the next decade or so, Laurie’s answer is unambiguous: taller, denser and more dynamic, with more innovative building design now that neighbourhood character constraints have been lifted. He also expects more traffic and parking pressure unless take up of public transport genuinely shifts, and flags real uncertainty about whether rental affordability keeps pace given how high construction costs remain.

For the system to deliver on its intent, Laurie believes several things need to move together: taxes, fees and charges need addressing at both state and federal level, construction costs need to come down, apprenticeship pathways need support, and the banking sector needs to become more comfortable lending against development, rather than remaining focused almost exclusively on owner occupied purchases and extensions.

Getting the Advice Right From the Start

Laurie’s closing advice is simple. Speak to trusted professionals, whether that is a buyer’s or vendor’s agent with a strategic view of the market, council directly, or a planning consultant who can bring lateral, strategic thinking to a site. His experience acting at the tribunal reinforces the same point from a different angle: the projects that run into the most trouble are almost always the ones where a planning consultant was engaged too late, after objections had piled up or council had already refused the application. Engaging early, before a project is locked into a design that will not get through, is by far the more efficient path.

Terrain Consulting Group works with a network of around 40 architects and designers across metropolitan Melbourne, along with heritage consultants, arborists, landscape architects, traffic engineers and environmental sustainability consultants, and can match property owners with the right team for their particular site and project.

Perhaps Laurie’s most striking observation is this: for the first time in his 37 year career, the balance of power has genuinely shifted toward the property owner. Where councils and objectors once had the final say on what could be built, that influence has been substantially reduced. For owners and buyers who might previously have been wary of the planning system, Laurie’s message is clear. There are real opportunities available, and more are likely to emerge as these reforms continue to roll out.

Key Takeaways If You Own a Property

• Check whether your land falls within or near one of the 60 activity centres, or has otherwise been rezoned to a Housing Choice and Transport Zone, since this may significantly change what height and density is now achievable.
• Before selling, get planning advice on what your site could support. A permit for extra dwellings, or simply clear evidence of development potential, can lift your result well beyond what a generic subject to council approval listing achieves.
• Measure any large trees on your property against the Clause 52.37 thresholds, five metres in height, four metres in canopy width, around 500 millimetres in trunk diameter, before assuming you are free to remove them.
• Check title, easements, covenants and any local tree laws or vegetation overlays that may apply to your council area, not just lot size and frontage.

Key Takeaways If You Are Buying or Developing

• Get planning advice before you purchase, particularly on tree provisions, since these are difficult to resolve within a standard settlement period and can materially change what a site allows.
• Engage a planning consultant early in any project. The projects most likely to end up at the tribunal are the ones where advice was sought only after council had already refused an application.
• Understand the new car parking rates for your zone and location. Reduced statutory requirements do not always match what the market still expects, particularly for family sized townhouses.
• Watch how negative gearing changes reshape investor demand for new versus established stock, and factor that shift into any land banking or development timing decisions.

 

This article is based on the Property, Straight Up podcast episode “The Planning Changes Reshaping What Your Property Could Be Worth,” featuring Laurie Rigoni from Terrain Consulting Group.