Carey urges density shift

John Carey has called on the state to shift the conversation around housing density if it wants to catch up to other parts of the world.

At a Business News Politics and Business breakfast this morning, the Housing, Planning, Lands and Homelessness Minister said Perth is missing true medium density.

“Density is critical to the future of Perth as a city,” Mr Carey said.

“We need to continue to fight hard to reframe the discussion around density.”

Mr Carey told attendees increased density could drive vibrancy and street activity, provide housing choice and create a sense of place for locals and tourists.

He called out the difficulty in getting major projects off the ground in the current market, which is impacted by unprecedented construction cost hikes and severe labour shortages.

“It is a very thin line between a viable and non-viable density project,” Mr Carey said.

“We know that a lack of certainty regarding the process and unnecessary delays can increase the cost of a project and, ultimately, kill it.”

Mr Carey said medium density should apply to six to eight-storey developments.

“Almost nowhere else in the world is medium density six grouped dwellings and, for the record, this is low density,” Mr Carey said.

“As a city, we are missing true medium density.”

In mid-August, the Minister deferred the state’s medium density design codes and announced the revised policy would only apply to residential codes R50 and R60.

This means the policy will apply to land that allows more than 50 dwellings per hectare, rather than 30 dwellings per hectare, as originally intended.

“We’ve got to radically change what we’re talking about. Medium density is not R30, medium density is not R40, it is not three homes on a block,” he said.

“Medium density is six to eight storeys and then high density goes beyond that.”

Planning reforms

Mr Carey stepped into his role as planning minister as the state is undergoing a major overhaul of its planning system.

Earlier this year, the state government announced it would extend the State Development Assessment Unit, which was brought in during COVID to expedite projects of state significance.

The government also announced a reduction in the threshold for projects to be assessed on the development assessment panels from $10 million to $2 million.

Mr Carey said the government would announce more planning reform to “further streamline the approval process” before the end of this year.