High-rise apartments could soon rise above heritage-listed inner-city homes under a sweeping housing proposal unveiled by Victoria’s Opposition, as the Coalition moves to redraw Melbourne’s development boundaries ahead of the next state election.
Liberal leader Jess Wilson on Wednesday 25 February spoke at the Future Victoria Summit, and outlined her party’s first major housing pitch - a plan to expand the CBD and unlock outer suburban growth areas, in a bid to accelerate supply and tackle the state’s deepening housing crisis.
"Demand for inner urban living from young professionals, downsizers, students [and] small households remains strong but supply has not kept pace," Wilson said.
"We will expand the Capital City Zone into the immediate inner city surrounding the CBD to Fishermans Bend, North Melbourne, Fitzroy and Collingwood.
"This will enable residential growth in the inner-city areas that are already serviced by public transport and strong connectivity."
Higher density buildings will be built closest to the CBD and "progressively scale down to the established neighbourhoods," Wilson said.
Under the government’s strategy, 300,000 new homes would be delivered by 2051 in precincts surrounding major transport hubs - including some of the city’s most tightly held and affluent postcodes such as Toorak, Armadale and Brighton - as part of a long-term effort to drive supply in established areas.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed new home completions were at their lowest level since 2014.
The ABS data highlights the drop to 54,323 in the year ending September 2025, despite the government's ambitious target of building 800,000 new homes in a decade, which equates to 80,000 every year.
Wilson attributed constrained housing delivery to planning inefficiencies and escalating statutory charges, stating that taxes, fees and levies now comprise more than 40% of the end cost of a new house-and-land package in Melbourne - a burden she says is undermining project feasibility and housing affordability.
