Member for Mallee Andrew Broad has praised Swan Hill Rural City Council’s “proactive” approach to its residential planning development.
Last week the state government announced that first home buyers in regional Victoria would be entitled to $20,000 as part of the first home buyers grant.
Mr Broad said home ownership was something that every Australian should aspire to.
“When a person can have a job and have a house that they can take pride in and raise a family in, you get a more stable society,” Mr Broad said.
With limited blocks of land available for sale in Swan Hill outside of the Tower Hill area, it may be difficult for Swan Hill residents to build their dream home.
Mr Broad said the council had been “quite proactive” in creating their own residential development sites in the Tower Hill area.
“What they realised was that there weren’t developers who were going to go in there and tell you to clear the site, put roads, lights and sewage,” he said.
“So what council said was that if they were going to grow their town, they needed to take an active role in turning and zoning land that could have houses on it and start to make blocks available for purchase.
“I would say council’s intervention in that place has certainly helped the growth of Swan Hill.”
Swan Hill Rural City Council chief executive officer John McLinden said there were still opportunities to build a home within Swan Hill.
“Most of the central part of town has now been built out, but there is still significant amounts of vacant blocks available at Tower Hill,” Mr McLinden said.
“We see steady sales of blocks there and the council is constantly developing and releasing more.
“If you look on the real estate websites there is a small number of vacant blocks that are on offer in the town.
“The choice isn’t large and I accept that, which is why the council has moved in the way it has in supporting the development of the South West Precinct.”
To read more about this story, grab a copy of Wednesday’s Guardian (March 8).
