Fix planning model: developer

PROPERTY developer Danny Murphy expects to see his landmark project Ellenbrook back in the news as Western Australia moves towards a state election and bickering begins again about a promised railway to the 10,500-homes project in the north-east corridor.

Mr Murphy, founder of LWP Property Group, said the move by both major parties to promise a railway to Ellenbrook at the last election simply highlighted the inadequacies of the state’s planning processes.

“It will come up in the next election,” he said.

“It will be a political football for the next 10 years, rather than someone sitting down and creating a feasible plan for the railway.”

The LWP boss acknowledges that a rail line to Ellenbrook is simply not appropriate in the short-to-medium term, given the relatively small population in the area.

But he has his own proposal for a rapid transit bus service, which would satisfy locals and make more financial sense.

But Mr Murphy’s development at Ellenbrook is almost three quarters complete and, as such, not riding on political whims as much as other projects at various planning stages.

In fact, LWP is largely past the most difficult stages of property development across its WA portfolio, which includes 3,500 lots in Byford called The Glades, 2,800 lots in the greater Alkimos area marketed as Trinity and 200 lots at Denmark. LWP’s focus has shifted east, where it has a 7,500-lot development in the Hunter Valley in NSW.

While he works closely with the WA government – Ellenbrook is a joint venture with the state’s Department of Housing – the maturity of his local portfolio allows him a little more latitude to offer advice to politicians, based on his experience, on how they could improve property development and take pressure off the increasingly costly creation of new homes.

A new plan for the metropolitan region, like that of the 1955 Stephenson-Hepburn plan, which has now reached its limits, would be a good start; especially if politicians followed it, agencies acted together to deliver on it and funding was properly allocated for each step.

Bring in local government planning and remove federal bureaucracy from the process and it might start to work, Mr Murphy said.

“You are generally looking at five years,” he said, with regard to getting a property development fully approved.

“That is far too long. In WA we [LWP] are in the fortunate position of being through this process and are in the business of developing and selling.

“But we have seen no improvement in the process.”

Instead, Mr Murphy said, different agencies appear to have different agendas that work against each other, frustrating developers who sit in the middle trying to interpret these different views.

“There is not enough coordination between the various state government agencies and between the state, local and federal governments; that last one is the area of environmental approvals,” he said.

“There needs to be an urban development committee of cabinet involving the relevant ministers.

“Once they tick off the plan, the agencies must follow; it needs to come from the top.”

He said the interpretation of user pays is a significant issue understood differently by agencies, especially those that have to put in infrastructure such as electricity, sewerage and transport when they might not have the money at hand to do so.

And a more narrow view of recouping housing development costs had significantly shifted the burden to first homebuyers, when previously affordable housing was created by spreading the cost was over generations of users.

“They should ensure funding is in place,” Mr Murphy said. 

“It is what business does. If you want to build a new mine you have to have all the elements in place, including funding.

“You get Treasury to sign off on those plans.”