The Australian Bureau of Statistics has today released its data for building approvals for the July to November 2018 period. Glen Eira remains well and truly above target to meet its housing needs for population growth.
The chart below features all building approvals since the 2011/12 financial year. Please note that these figures also include building approvals for single house replacements. Thus, whilst the chart indicates that Monash has 300+ more building approvals, once the number of permits for single houses are removed, Glen Eira is streaking it in. For example: during this period Monash has had 4432 single house permits granted. Glen Eira has had 2232 – ie Monash has had double the number. Boroondara is another example where the rate of single house replacement is very high – 3547. Further exacerbating this data is the size of these municipalities. When 80 square km (Monash) is compared to the 38.9 km of Glen Eira, questions of density, open space become critical. Something our council is ignoring completely!
Given this data, it remains unbelievable that council is still committed to doubling the size of our activity centres and facilitating apartment blocks of 12 storeys and more.
PS – in order to put some of these stats into perspective we are adding the following – a list of all municipalities that had more building permits granted than Glen Eira’s for the period July to November 2018. Glen Eira had 853 permits of which only 132 were for single house replacements. The following list includes the total number of permits, plus the number of single house permits following the bracket(/).
Casey – 1983/ 1794
Greater Geelong – 1416/1246
Hume – 1615/1395
Manningham – 1109/170
Melton – 1216/1199
Monash – 1201/291
Whittlesea – 1266/890
Wyndham – 2557/2296
Glen Eira Debates 
January 16, 2019 at 12:57 PM
Evidence based planning – not in Glen Eira.
January 16, 2019 at 6:22 PM
I would agree wholeheartedly with your assessment on evidence based planning and its absence in our city. Council has always worked in reverse. First the decision is made and then there is the mad hunt to find any “evidence” that might support the erroneous decision.
January 16, 2019 at 12:58 PM
Glen Eira Council are hell bent on high density living in Glen Eira. 2019 will see them continuing to allow developers to real havoc in our suburbs. The rapid change is distressing to residents. The Council don’t listen to residents drawing their attention to traffic and parking problems and the disappearance of beautiful gardens, trees, and backyards. Slums of the future. All the fancy statements re taking into consideration the style of the area is… well you know. I can’t put it in print. Happy New Year Glen Eira residents🥴
January 16, 2019 at 4:02 PM
Hell bent is dead right. I would bet that private discussions have been ongoing with developers for at least 2 years and council is rubbing its hands at all the dough that will come in from rates and subdivisions. Too bad about the pesky residents who want their neighbourhoods to be liveable.
January 16, 2019 at 10:27 PM
Thanks councillors for rotten planning year after year and for the bloody zones that told developers to come and get it cos Glen Eira is waiting to help you out. Now they’re getting more help. A disgrace.
January 17, 2019 at 9:02 AM
All of these councillors including the newby Cade had opposition to inappropriate development as part of their election spiels. So much for their bull when they vote for more and more doggy boxes that reach for the sky.
January 17, 2019 at 10:09 AM
Was Cade not perceived by some to be a “dummy” candidate at the time?
January 17, 2019 at 1:01 PM
I see a council office in Frankston was charged this week with over 60 corruption charges after a investigation by IBAC, with his partner in crime a contractor also charged with a similar amount of charges. With this amount of cash splashing around Glen Eira, the secrecy the inability of the planning department and our councillors to answer or explain the rationale behind simple questions. IBAC should turn its attention to the cosy relationship between developers and our planning officer in Glen Eira, as there has been something that walks and quacks like a duck strolling our town hall corridors for years and years.
January 18, 2019 at 1:21 PM
Looking at Port Philip’s approvals of 8488 over this period, this would include many of the recently built very tall buildings that are on the St Kilda hill. And yet to date, Glen Eira has few very tall developments, despite this, Glen Eira numbers are very high over these past years. With the number of tall and dense apartment dwellings currently proposed in Glen Eira, then the tally and trend in the coming years will continue to be high – at what cost to the existing and future liveability and sustainability? Sydney’s recent property review comparing the amenity and quality outcomes of their medium rise compared to high-rise buildings was not pleasant reading. The high-rise developments did not score well! We must learn from this information and not let our Council make the same mistakes.