A chronic shortage of land for sale in Griffith is frustrating developers, and resulting in soaring prices for buyers and renters.
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Bill Arnold, owner of the Leeton branch of home builders Hontondo Homes, said “there’s just no land left. For the past six months, we’ve struggled to find land for our home packages”.
Mr Arnold says it’s happy times for land owners, who can take advantage of the shortage by cranking up their price.
“We’ve now got 700 sqm blocks of land going for $120,000.”
Nathan Thomas of Griffith Real Estate said that five years ago, blocks that size were going for half that price.
“There seems to be a chronic lack of vacant land for residential use,” he said.
Mr Thomas said this has a flow on effect, with people wanting to upgrade unable to move. Home buyers are frustrated by the lack of listings, and renters pushed out by near zero vacancy rates.
In response, Griffith mayor John Dal Broi said, “there is ample land zoned for residential development in Griffith as a result of Council's comprehensive forward planning in the Land Use Strategy and LEP. Most of it is privately owned. Council cannot force a land owner to sell their land to developers, and cannot force a developer, who has purchased land for development, when they are to develop it.”
Cr. Dal Broi said council responded to potential land shortages two years ago, amending Development Control Plans to enable faster approvals. He said as a result we’ve recently seen large blocks approved for development in Collina and Willandra gardens.
“Given council approved 103 dwellings last financial year, which was up on the previous few years, there is enough land available to meet demand for the next few years, with the development industry telling council not to create a situation that floods the market.”
Both Mr Thomas and Mr Arnold said there was also frustration at the length time it took to process development applications (DA) and register land.
Acting General Manager Neil Southorn said “council stands by its record. In the 2014/15 financial year, council recorded the best DA time of any NSW regional city with a population below 70,000 with an average net time of 28 calendar days.”
Griffith City Council asked The Area News to publish their full statement in response to concerns.
Mr Arnold said it’s encouraging the that blocks are to come on the market, but they really need land now.
He said he has a good working relationship with council, and applauded the fact they allow for deferred payment of developer contribution fees.
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