Bendigo council considers homes for Edwards Road trotting track, Jackass Flat

They have asked the City of Greater Bendigo's permission to build on a track out the back of 29 Edwards Road, Jackass Flat.

The new homes would link up to wider building projects like the Canterbury and Evergreen Waters estates, which have transformed the area in recent decades.

More than 5700 people currently live in the Jackass Flat and White Hills area but that is expected spike by 26 per cent over 14 years, demographers at consultancy firm ID say.

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The area is among where the council wants to see more infill developments to take the pressure off urban growth boundaries.

Building approvals spiked sharply during the pandemic but the city is still struggling to house its population.

Rental vacancy rates have at times been less than one per cent this year, helping to fuel a homelessness crisis that is coming to a head a few suburbs away in Huntly.

There, the council is trying to move homeless people out of a public reserve despite no homes to go to.

Experts say they are just the visible tip of a much broader affordability crisis for homeless people, renters and many mortgage holders.

The council hopes infill developments within city limits will ease pressure on affordability, along with the big growth suburbs like Huntly, Marong and Strathfieldsaye.

The 62 proposed Jackass Flat homes would not impinge the front half of the property at 29 Edwards Road.

Developers have not lodged plans to build there.

The council would need to subdivide the entire property into two for developers' housing plans to come together.

Bendigo's council is considering the application.

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