Some wealthy homemakers are being allowed to do the opposite of what the rest of us are being told to do. They have been given permission to turn an area where there were six households into one - theirs. Such significant destruction and prioritization of certain interests in the face of so much homelessness and the loss of democracy for all Victorians through authoritarian planning is shocking.
In a article in the real estate section of The Age, June 1st 2025 there is no mention of the irony of this given the “housing shortage” and the changes to the planning system to force us into smaller and smaller spaces. It is
just so blatant !! This action shows no sense of proportion or consciousness of the materials, the embedded energy, the land-fill. The article indulges this unequal practice during the installation of a planning dictatorship for most people in Melbourne, by describing this politically exceptional land-use innocuously as a 'dream home.' This is a suburb where authoritarian planning has bulldozed over concerted democratic resistance to decree the destruction of established suburban houses with gardens in favour of high-rise boxes, purportedly to increase affordable housing (although this has been shown to be untrue.) The changes to land-tenure in this state have been so egregious that they sustained concerted challenges by many local and professional groups in an attempt by the opposition and cross benchers in Victorian parliament to revoke them as illegal. Unfortunately Greens, Legalise Cannabis, and Animal Justice party-members voted (incomprehensibly) to keep them.
In "Chemist Warehouse family pays $22.8m for six houses to demolish them," The Age, 1 June 2025, writing for the billion-dollar Age Real Estate advertising sector, "Domain," journalists Elizabeth Redman and Tawar Razaghi describe how nearly $23 million was spent by a young couple in inner suburban Toorak only for the houses to be demolished to make way for the couple's 'dream' mansion. The result will be that one household will occupy the same land that 6 did before these transactions.
"Woodards South Yarra’s Luke Piccolo declined to comment on any aspect of the transaction he handled or the identity of the buyers when contacted.
But speaking generally, he said he had noticed a trend of site amalgamations in the inner east for families looking to build a new residence that suited their requirements. For example, some high-end buyers might desire wellness amenities such as a sauna, gym, pool, spa and cold plunge pool, but others might need to house a car collection.
He recently sold a block of apartments that is being consolidated into a single residence, another unit block that is being developed into a smaller number of luxury apartments, and four townhouses that were amalgamated."
Ironically, the comment cited concluded with this observation:
[...] “For a family to find a large landholding in Stonnington, the options are very few.”
This trend goes 180 degrees against the current push of the Victorian planning scheme which is to densify the middle ring suburbs of Melbourne and for houses and gardens to be demolished for apartments and overall denser living including high rise to accommodate massive population growth . There is no mention of the irony of this given the “housing shortage” and the changes to the planning system to force us into smaller and smaller spaces. Looks as though extreme inequality in Melbourne is upon us and that it is being applied with ostentatious contempt by the Victorian government as it caters lavishly to a financial elite, in effect publicly humiliating an entire class of people and laughing at them as it steals from them and removes their most basic rights.
Add comment