The draft Housing Strategy 2024 is a key strategic document that sets out a 15-year plan to guide the location, type and design of new housing across Stonnington’s residential areas.

Stonnington’s population is growing and changing. By 2036, it is estimated that an extra 25,860 people will move to Stonnington and will live in an additional 12,950 homes.

Growth and change are being driven by a number of factors. These include longer life expectancy, Stonnington’s desirability as a place to live and broader federal and state government policies that encourage population growth and housing development. While the Council has limited ability to change the broader issues, it can work with the community to manage how and where this growth occurs in Stonnington.

We have prepared the draft Stonnington Housing Strategy 2024 to guide housing change across the municipality and respond to this growth over the next 15 years. If planned well, growth can provide opportunities for a range of benefits, such as greater choice of dwellings and more inclusive and vibrant neighbourhoods. The role of the housing strategy will be more than just managing growth; it will also explore possibilities for capturing these benefits.

The draft Strategy applies to all residentially zoned land across the municipality, including land in the Neighbourhood Residential Zone, General Residential Zone, Residential Growth Zone and Mixed-Use Zone.

Informed by previous community engagement, the draft Housing Strategy identifies an overarching vision, and includes seven ‘Key Vision Themes’.

• Neighbourhood character - identifies six neighbourhood character areas and guides development to respond to preferred future character. This includes identification of building heights and built form and landscaping elements that contribute to character and will inform the subsequent amendment to the Stonnington Planning Scheme.

• Location - includes the ‘Housing Framework Plan,’ which identifies areas appropriate for minimal, incremental and substantial change and the criteria for each category of change. This strategy (similar to the current controls) generally identifies areas of greater change along key transport corridors and close to jobs and services, while identifying lower levels of change in areas with identified heritage or neighbourhood character values.
• Diversity – considers the mix of housing types needed to meet the diverse needs of Stonnington’s current and future communities, including multi-generational housing, accessible housing, student housing and adaptable housing, with actions identifying the development of a Housing Diversity Strategy and opportunities for pilot projects.
• Affordable housing - considers housing needs for current and future Stonnington residents on very low, low and moderate incomes and includes actions relating to the development of a Social and Affordable Housing Policy, as well as advocacy to other levels of government.
• Sustainability and design - considers the design quality of residential development, and the environmental performance of new and existing housing across Stonnington and includes actions supporting Environmentally Sustainable Design planning requirements and sustainable transport.
• Open space and urban greening - explores access to open space, planting in the private and public realm and integrated water management and includes actions supporting the development of the Open Space Strategy, integrated water management and tree conservation.
• Community infrastructure - considers the infrastructure needs of Stonnington residents as the City’s population grows and changes and aligns with complementary work across Council exploring future community infrastructure needs.

Stonnington’s draft Housing Framework Plan contained within the draft Housing Strategy identifies three categories of housing change to guide the future development across Stonnington – known as ‘minimal change’, ‘incremental change’ and ‘substantial change’. These classifications reflect the level of housing change expected in order to achieve a balanced approach to manage residential development.

You can search what change areas are proposed for properties within the municipality by using our online mapping tool.

While Council cannot directly influence population growth, we have a clear role to plan for our current and future community. The housing strategy will not:

• stop population growth from occurring in Stonnington;
• immediately rezone land or change current planning controls (any changes will be subject to further, more detailed work involving additional community engagement); or
• force people to move house or develop their land.

No. The strategy will not stop housing growth and change, but it will direct it to areas where there are better access to services and transport, and fewer constraints (such as heritage, environmental, or other specific planning scheme controls).

New homes should cater for a diverse community, including families, low-income earners, people living alone, young people, the elderly and people with disabilities.

New dwellings should be of high quality and designed for the long term.

The draft Housing Strategy considers the projected demographic changes and aims to respond to the diversity of the community’s housing needs.

An increase in population will place pressure on infrastructure, such as parks, open spaces, schools, childcare, youth and aged services. Complementary strategies are underway to manage this growth, including relating to open space, neighbourhood activity centres, heritage and car-parking.

Through the draft Housing Strategy, Council will seek to make sure that increases in population and housing are met with new or improved infrastructure to serve the needs of the existing and future community.

Council has a strong record of advocacy to other levels of government to ensure that infrastructure and services keep up with our community’s needs and expectations, this advocacy program will be strengthened by a housing strategy that reflects a growing Stonnington.

A key challenge in planning for new housing is to make sure that Stonnington’s valued heritage and character is maintained and enhanced. The draft Housing Strategy identifies the most appropriate locations for more intensive growth. It also identifies six neighbourhood character types and outlines attributes of existing and preferred future character that could inform future planning controls.

Council is seeking community feedback on the draft Housing Strategy.

Feedback will be considered and inform finalisation of the Housing Strategy. Once finalised, actions of the Housing Strategy will be implemented.

Any changes to the Stonnington Planning Scheme affecting built form (including building heights and setbacks) will be implemented through a separate and subsequent planning scheme amendment process that includes additional opportunities for community engagement and feedback.