A VICTORIAN council will ditch the need for permits for caravans and wheeled tiny homes on existing properties to ease a local housing crisis.<\/p>\n
Councillors in Mount Alexander Shire have decided to change local laws to allow caravans and tiny homes on wheels to set up at properties with existing dwellings.<\/p>\n
The change will allow one temporary home per property and will not limit how long the dwelling can remain.<\/p>\n
The shift, which came from community feedback, indicates a strained market and shows a grassroots appetite for innovation in housing and property, according to Monash University architecture professor Mathew Aitchison.<\/p>\n
“The traditional mode of housing delivery is already at capacity,” said Professor Aitchison, who is also chief executive at Federally funded research agency Building 4.0 CRC.<\/p>\n
He also said pumping more money into the existing system could have an inflationary effect if not coupled with new ways to grow productivity or capacity.<\/p>\n
“This is a really core example of growing capacity in the industry,” Professor Aitchison said.<\/p>\n
“And then also establishing a range of companies that are starting to deliver these tiny houses, in addition to our traditional housing delivery methods, I think is a good thing.”<\/p>\n
He said policy certainty was crucial to support a tiny house industry in Australia, but councils around the country were taking very different approaches.<\/p>\n
Sunshine Coast Council recently made headlines for evicting residents from four tiny homes on a rural property in the hinterlands for allegedly failing to comply with the planning scheme.<\/p>\n
The council allows one temporary dwelling per property and charges $514 per permit.<\/p>\n
Professor Aitchison said it was crucial any policies didn’t apply to holiday rentals, or they risked worsening the housing crisis.<\/p>\n
“You’d like to see those policies obviously anticipating some of those sorts of things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mount Alexander Shire mayor Cr Rosie Annear said the change would provide some much-needed relief.<\/p>\n
“We know that this change won’t fix the housing crisis we’re experiencing in the Shire, but we hope it will provide another option for people who are struggling to find a place to live or for those who just want a lifestyle change,” she said.<\/p>\n