Advantages
Limitations
The resources and guidance in the Affordable Housing National Leading Practice Guide and Tool Kit is not designed to be relied upon. Users of the guide should consider the individual circumstances of each project or policy, use other resources and take independent advice.
Introduction to barrier reduction strategies
Planning policies either individually or in combination may discourage or restrict affordable housing provision in new developments. Barrier reduction strategies aim to minimise the impact of these constraints on affordable housing.
Barriers to affordable housing development include restrictive planning controls to prevent diverse or low-cost housing forms (like duplexes, flats, boarding houses, or manufactured homes). Barriers to affordable housing development might also make building costs more expensive by mandating inclusions or finishes that are expensive, like generous building setbacks or open space requirements, or the use of particular building materials.
Covenants on building titles can also act as a barrier to affordable housing, by specifying compliance with additional design codes, and limiting the way properties can be used—for instance, preventing vehicles from being parked on the street. In this way covenants can deliberately or indirectly prevent certain groups of people, including lower income groups, from living in a particular area. Some covenants even restrict who can own properties, with social housing providers being barred from certain housing estates due to express prohibitions on title.
Approaches to reduce the impact of such barriers may focus on:
- Planning controls such as enabling a mix of housing types and sizes to be provided including secondary dwellings, small lot dwellings, single duplexes and other low-impact multiple dwellings in a low density residential zone.
- Building controls such as minimum bathrooms, garages, or restrictions on diversity of house types (for example, multifamily, apartments, caravan parks).
- Preventing restrictive covenants such as provisions put on title to limit the use of the property or prohibiting certain uses, such as boarding houses, or covenants that mandate high-cost finishes that add to the cost of development.
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To see examples of barrier reduction strategies click on the link below
What are barrier reduction measures likely to achieve?
Barrier removal approaches can have a direct influence on house prices, at least at the lower end of the market where the margins between profit and production costs are smaller. Barrier removal approaches also improve response to demand by increasing the diversity of housing types that can be provided.
Advantages
- Barrier reduction strategies contribute to better overall performance of the planning system.
- They provide an important opportunity to revise existing planning schemes to enable more diverse housing forms within existing areas.
- They ensure that existing traditional low-cost rental housing like boarding houses or hotel accommodation remains permissible within residential areas, and can be replaced.
- They enable existing housing to diversify without dramatic changes to prevailing neighbourhood character or the need for major new investment in redevelopment (for example, by permitting dual occupancies or accessory dwellings like ‘granny flats’ or ‘garden apartments’).
Limitations
Where there is escalating housing demand and intense competition between buyers or renters, there is no guarantee that full development cost savings will be passed onto the occupant of the dwelling. As house prices are determined by the market, not the actual costs of production, sometimes barrier removal strategies will only achieve more diverse housing forms rather than any significant shift towards housing that is affordable to low and moderate-income households. As the primary objective of barrier reduction strategies is to contribute to more housing supply and greater housing diversity, the inability to ensure that new housing created is offered at lower price points while the most desirable outcome should not be seen as a failure of the approach.
Barrier reduction approaches can be opposed by local residents and politicians on the basis that they undermine existing amenity, character, heritage or environmental quality. For example, a new building without eaves can reduce housing cost but increase energy and environmental costs, and create a negative visual impact. Any cost reduction strategies need to be carefully evaluated to ensure any cost reductions still maintain acceptable levels of amenity and environmental quality.
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Where will this measure have the greatest impact?
Barrier reduction strategies can increase housing development opportunities— specifically, housing that is affordable to lower income groups—improving low-cost residential development opportunities without the need for major new land release. They are particularly appropriate in circumstances where new land release opportunities are limited.
The scale of impact of this approach will have the greatest short-term impact where existing planning controls are most restrictive and where the market is relatively buoyant. Where lower-cost housing forms are needed and significant barriers to diverse housing development exist, removing these barriers could actually stimulate the housing market.
Explicit barrier reduction strategies in new release areas can also ensure that diverse housing types and forms are encouraged. Given the increasing trend towards master-planned residential estates, often by a single developer who uses a covenant system to impose additional design or other restrictive controls on title, it is important to establish a policy approach that prevents restrictive or exclusive covenants in new residential areas.
To see examples of barrier reduction strategies click on the link below
How to use these measures
- Ensure that zoning/development control tables enable, encourage or require diverse housing types in as many locations as possible.
- Audit existing development standards and processes to identify controls or procedural requirements that cannot be justified on environmental, heritage, amenity or other important planning grounds given their impact on building or development costs; and scrutinise the effect on affordability of any proposed new requirements.
- Carefully consider where necessary or rule out private covenants for new housing estates, where these requirements are inconsistent with local planning goals established by the community, including goals relating to affordable housing.
To see examples of barrier reduction strategies click on the link below
Click on the link below to determine whether this planning mechanism is recommended for your environment
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