Four Bendigo builds expose townhouse, unit, apartment go-slow

Greater Bendigo's council has spent years urging developers to better use underdeveloped land within city limits, to help house a rapidly growing population more effectively.

The pivot to more compact living has been slow, both the council and developers have acknowledged at a gathering hosted in Bendigo by the Urban Development Institute of Australia.

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The problem is taking on added urgency as the council prepares a much-anticipated "managed growth strategy" in the shadow of two separate warnings to build better in existing Bendigo suburbs.

The first from Infrastructure Victoria suggested Bendigo chase a "compact city" approach as the population balloons from 120,000 to 200,000 by 2056, while the Urban Development institute has warned Bendigo's land supply is very low.

So why isn't Bendigo building more apartments, units and townhouses within city limits?

Industry insider Andrea Tomkinson says four game-changing projects around the city hint at the roadblocks developers often face.

"None of them have happened because there are issues beyond planning and council's control, potentially," the chair of Urban Development Institute of Australia's northern chapter said.

Some of those pressures are on show a stone's throw from the centre of Bendigo where a large concrete-linede hole marks the spot a developer wants a multi-storey Wills Street building, Ms Tomkinson said.

It was a logical location for more compact living, she said.

The project is yet to get out of the ground thanks to infrastructure issues and servicing costs, Ms Tomkinson said.

Challenges do not ease up outside the city centre, where key decision makers have not always agreed with developers or the council about how many homes should fit on sites.

Victoria's planning umpire knocked back plans in the mid-2010s for 20 two-storey units on Kangaroo Flat's High Street commercial strip.

Ms Tomkinson said it left some developers asking "if you can't do it there, where can you do it?"

In Golden Square, developers are yet to build 79-lot townhouses using a permit issued in 2017.

It is an example of the difficulties building homes without precedent in Bendigo, Ms Tomkinson said.

Those sorts of projects can leave traditional lenders like banks unsure whether to lend money.

"It means developers need to get a lot more creative and that takes time," Ms Tomkinson said.

And then there is a 1400-lot development in Edwards Road, Maiden Gully.

That project had been "stymied at every turn" despite both its developers and the council going in to bat for it, Ms Tomkinson said.

The land was rezoned in 2014 but project backers have grappled with questions around native vegetation, bushfire risks and local opposition, along with escalating costs for connect services future residents would rely on, she said.

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