City of Launceston Council has announced it will explore opportunities to increase housing diversity in the municipality, following a Notice of Motion from Mayor, Matthew Garwood.
Mayor Garwood (pictured) says his motion is intended to take advantage of the Federal Government’s Housing Australia Future Fund, allowing the Council to work with housing proponents and private developers to encourage more high-density affordable housing.
Mayor Garwood said housing in the municipality was “critically undersupplied” in a number of areas.
“I’m very passionate about this issue, and this motion is about providing more support to the range of people who are in different stages of the property cycle,” he said.
“There are some creative ways Launceston can be a leader in this space, including making better use of CBD properties like car parks.”
Mayor Garwood said increasing affordable housing in Launceston’s CBD would have number of flow-on effects, including:
- Increased housing diversity to appeal to people in different life stages;
- Increased CBD activation;
- Increased consumer expenditure in the CBD;
- Improved wellbeing for residents;
“This motion is designed to increase affordable housing which is where residential accommodation is provided at below market rental prices,” Mayor Garwood said.
“The market at the moment can’t support density for large-scale private apartments, because the sale prices won’t be high enough to cover the development costs.
“This is an opportunity for our Council to get on the front foot and to be leaders in this sector and to see what we can do to help deliver some desperately needed new housing options for our city.
“I recently attended a housing summit in Adelaide where it was said, to paraphrase the Lord Mayor, ‘A house use to be a place to park a car and raise a family. Now it’s a place to park your wealth and raise your asset portfolio.’
“I look forward to working with the Federal Government, housing providers, private investors and anyone else, with the aim of delivering some fantastic outcomes for our city, our CBD and our greater Launceston region.”
