Deputy mayor Jon Raven says a looming investment boom will stop developers from sitting on land banks.
Historically, land developers seek approval for a large sub-division, and then release land to the market in portions they feel will be most cost-effective.
Now however, developers say they are fast-tracking land ready for sale to meet the demands of a post-Covid investment boom.
The federal government has extended $25,000 grants for new home builds until March 31, 2021, which has led to unprecedented interest in new housing estates.
Some developments have seen double the interest in 2020 to what they received in 2019.
Cr Raven said the fast-tracking would have no impact on council’s infrastructure plans. To the contrary, he said council would prefer developers not to sit on land banks.
Developers have four years to release land after approval has been received.
“We only approve a land development when we feel the city is able to effectively manage the infrastructure,” he said.
“We want more people coming to the city to help drive the economic recovery, so it is a great news story that there is this demand.
“More development means more jobs. We’re looking at a lot of cash floating around due to Covid. You would expect that things might slow down for Covid, but they didn’t seem to slow down at all.
“If the question is whether the city is ready for this, you bet we are.”
Cr Raven said developers were already conditioned to pay contributions towards city infrastructure, so any increase in development would have zero impact on resources.
“The more development you see, the more money there is to upgrade roads etc,” he said.
