Unlocking lazy land potential

We are often told to work smarter not harder or to get the most bang for our buck – and the same can be said of the way land is utilised for residential use.

This is principle is particularly salient in today’s market, where metropolitan land is rising towards a premium and Western Australia cannot afford to let the sleeping dog – known as ‘lazy land’ – lie any longer.

UDIA WA Acting CEO Sarah Macaulay said the term lazy land in this context was used to describe government-owned land found across the Perth metropolitan and regional areas which were sitting idle or underutilised.

As part of the State Government’s $3.2 billion investment into the Housing Diversity Pipeline (HDP), the identification and redevelopment of lazy land in WA has been key to increasing housing, combatting homelessness and working to create up to 5000 new social homes.

“A key focus of the HDP program is to deliver new housing supply and to work with industry to develop solutions delivering better housing outcomes for all Western Australians,” a Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (DPLH) spokesperson said.

The first round of the HDP released for registrations of interest in February 2022 and, according to Ms Macaulay, it included 12 State Government-owned landholdings adjacent to transport corridors such as Metronet stations.

While one might assume this process would be fast, as the land has already been given the green light by the State Government, the reality of releasing lazy land for redevelopment is more complex.

“Site constraints and market conditions meant the nancial viability of developing the identified sites, particularly for higher-density in ll development, was limited,” Ms Macaulay said.

“Therefore, the first round of the initiative did not have the take-up from private industry which the State Government was

aiming for.”

Ms Macaulay said under the HDP, any proposed development on such land would still need to go through the normal approvals process.

“Specific requirements would depend on the area and type of development proposed,” she said.

The DPLH spokesperson said land might also have other constraints, including contaminationor infrastructure servicing requirements, which could impact development scale.

In light of this, the State Government opened round two of expressions of interest from August 2024 to October 2024, which allowed developers to propose potential sites for housing delivery.

According to the DPLH spokesperson, the second round aims to accelerate the supply of new residential land and housing by leveraging the expertise of industry to identify suitable land for development.

“Eligible land in HDP round two must already be appropriately zoned for residential development, or be subject to planning or other regulatory processes to support residential development,” the spokesperson said. “It must also not be impacted by signi cant environmental, heritage or infrastructure requirements or constraints.”

“Under the expanded program, the State Government would consider any developer-led proposals for new housing on underutilised land, provided it was not already earmarked for future roads, schools or other amenity, or subject to a first-mover advantage situation,” Ms Macaulay said.

“Now the second round’s expressions of interest have closed, the State Government is assessing the responses against defined criteria, including to identify if the land can be released, and to consider the extent to which proposals would deliver housing quickly and represent good public value through the use of the government land.

“The private sector is best placed to deliver the housing supply we need quickly and efficiently, and State Government initiatives – such as HDP’s round two – are important in helping to facilitate this.”

As it appeared in the 2024 November 30 edition of The West Australian.