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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Victoria's fast-track planning programme has now approved more than 15,000 homes, the state government said in a media release on Wednesday 7 October 2026. The release, issued by Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny and Housing, Building and Precincts Minister Nick Staikos, says the Development Facilitation Program cleared 1,775 homes in August 2026 alone.
On the same day, the Property Council of Australia published its reading of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Building Activity figures for the state. Victoria completed 56,303 homes in the 12 months to June 2026, against 56,296 in the 12 months before: seven more.
The two releases describe different ends of the same pipeline. One counts permits, the other counts finished homes, and seven weeks before a state election the distance between them has become the argument.
Premier of Victoria media release and Property Council of Australia release citing ABS Building Activity, both 7 October 2026.
What the government announced
The Development Facilitation Program moves the decision on large housing projects from the local council to the Minister for Planning. According to the government's release, projects that go through it are decided in four months on average, which it says is 10 months faster than the average council approval for housing. Taken together, those two figures put the council average at about 14 months.
The release gives a recent example: 478 homes approved in Collingwood, in inner Melbourne, in a project that also includes a public plaza, a neighbourhood garden and shops at ground level.
Every eligible project must put 10% of its homes towards affordable housing, either as dwellings or as a cash payment to the Social Housing Growth Fund. The government says almost A$63 million has gone to the fund through the programme. Mr Staikos said in the release that the programme is bringing more affordable and social homes through the system faster.
Related readAustralia: KPMG says new-build spending up 20%, rebuilds down 32%Ms Kilkenny put the case in one line. "Labor is fast-tracking thousands of homes right across Victoria," she said in the release. The same document says the Opposition would scrap the planning reforms and that this would cut 300,000 homes. That is the government's own claim about its opponents, made in a campaign season, and the release gives no working for the figure.
The programme's own figures do not add up
The release breaks the total down by period. It says 3,705 homes were approved in the programme's first 12 months, about 9,000 in the following 12 months, and a further 6,000 so far in 2026.
Added together, those three figures come to 18,705, well above a headline of "more than 15,000". The release does not explain the difference. The last two figures alone sum to 15,000, but nothing in the document says that this is how the total was reached, and the same three numbers were repeated without comment by the trade publication Elite Agent on 8 October.
The period figures total 18,705, not 15,000
The government's release gives 3,705, about 9,000 and 6,000 homes for three successive periods, and a programme total of more than 15,000. The figures are reported here as published. They cannot be reconciled from the release itself.
What the breakdown does show, whichever total is right, is the direction. Approvals in the second year were more than double those of the first, and 1,775 homes in a single month is close to half of what the programme approved in its whole first year.
What the ABS figures show
The Property Council's release draws on the ABS Building Activity publication for the June quarter 2026, which came out the same day. Nationally, it recorded 52,201 homes started and 47,168 completed in the quarter.
For Victoria, the Property Council reports 14,191 new dwellings completed in the June quarter 2026. Over the 12 months to June the state completed 56,303 homes, which is the figure that barely moved.
Related readDubai CommerCity adds 91,000 sq m in an AED 1.8 billion second phaseStarts tell a livelier story. Builders commenced 16,239 dwellings in Victoria in the June quarter, which the Property Council describes as the highest quarterly figure since March 2023. Over the 12 months to June 2026, commencements reached 57,551, up from 55,958 a year earlier. That is 1,593 more homes started, a rise of 2.8%.
Both numbers sit a long way under the state's own goal. The 2023 Housing Statement set a target of 80,000 homes a year, or 800,000 over a decade. Against that yardstick, the 56,303 homes completed in the year to June amount to about 70% of a year's target, a gap of 23,697 homes.
Target: Victoria's 2023 Housing Statement. Starts and completions: ABS Building Activity, as reported by the Property Council of Australia, 7 October 2026.
Cath Evans, the Property Council's Victorian executive director, did not soften her reading. "An increase of seven more homes in 12 months is just not good enough," she said in the release.
Why a permit is not yet a home
The two sets of numbers are not in conflict, because they do not measure the same thing. A planning approval gives a developer the right to build. It does not start a site, and it says nothing about when, or whether, the project will be financed, sold and constructed.
The programme's totals are counts of homes in approved projects. The ABS series counts dwellings when work begins and again when they are finished. A 478-home apartment project approved this year appears in the government's total straight away, and in the completions series only once it has been built.
That lag is why the rise in commencements matters more to the trade than either headline. Homes started in the June quarter are the completions of later periods, and a quarter that is the strongest since March 2023 points to more work on site. It is still one quarter. The yearly count of starts, at 57,551, exceeds the yearly count of completions by only 1,248.
Related readDevelopers look at land along Dubai's 80 km Fourth Corridor roadThe Property Council's argument is that the brake sits after the permit. Its release calls for changes to the state's tax settings as well as its planning system, and points to its 2026 election platform, which asks for a lower tax burden on institutional investors, incentives for new apartments and townhouses, and the abolition of the Windfall Gains Tax. Those are the positions of an industry lobby, set out as such.
How the fast-track pathway works
The Victorian planning department's guidance on the programme, last modified on 17 September 2025, sets out the detail. Three clauses of the Victoria Planning Provisions let a permit application go to the Minister instead of the council: one for significant economic development, one for significant residential development with affordable housing, and one called the Great Design Fast Track.
For the residential pathway, the guidance sets a minimum development cost of A$50 million in metropolitan Melbourne and A$15 million in regional Victoria. The cost is the estimated price of materials and labour, backed by a quantity surveyor's report dated no more than 60 days before the application. In a mixed-use project, only the residential part counts.
Unless the State or a public authority is carrying out or funding the project, the applicant also needs written advice from the chief executive of Invest Victoria that the project has shown it can secure its funding.
The 10% affordable housing requirement can be met in three ways, according to the same guidance.
| Option | What the developer provides | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|
| Discounted sale or gift | 10% of dwellings sold at a 30% discount, or 3% of dwellings gifted. | A registered housing agency or Homes Victoria |
| Cash contribution | A payment equal to 3% of the development cost. | The Social Housing Growth Fund |
| Discounted rent | In build-to-rent projects, 10% of dwellings let at no more than 30% of household income. | Eligible households |
Victorian planning department guidance on the programme's expedited pathways, last modified 17 September 2025.
The department assesses each application on its planning merits and every project goes through a design review. Neighbours are still told: the guidance says applications are not exempt from public notice or from referral to other authorities unless the planning scheme exempts them elsewhere. The Minister can waive or vary mandatory limits on building height, setbacks and garden area. And the decision is final in one important respect: it cannot be appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Related readDubai Islands gets a shoreline contract and a new Bay Estate communityThree years of the Housing Statement
The October exchange follows an earlier one. On Thursday 24 September 2026, three years after the Housing Statement, the Property Council published a joint assessment with the Urban Development Institute of Australia, Master Builders and the Housing Industry Association. The four bodies called for a renewed partnership with government, with clearer accountability and published data on delays.
That release says ABS figures show about 145,000 homes built in Victoria since 2023, and puts the shortfall against the target at about 200,000. Those two numbers are also hard to square from the release alone. Three years at 80,000 homes a year is 240,000, which is 95,000 more than 145,000, not 200,000. The release does not set out how its shortfall is measured, so both figures are given here as the Property Council published them.
"Victoria doesn't have a housing target problem – it has a housing delivery problem," Ms Evans said in that release.
What it means for the trade, and what comes next
For anyone selling new homes, the practical reading is about timing. On the government's figures, the programme is producing approvals faster and in greater numbers than in its first year, even with the unresolved total.
The supply that buyers and tenants can actually move into is governed by the completions count, and that count was flat over the year to June 2026. More starts in the June quarter suggest more completions to come, without saying when.
For the affordable housing sector, the cash option is the measurable part: almost A$63 million paid to the Social Housing Growth Fund, according to the government.
Victorians vote on Saturday 28 November 2026. Housing supply is already one of the contested subjects: the government is campaigning on its planning reforms, and the Property Council has published an election platform asking the next government, whoever forms it, to change tax settings.
The next ABS Building Activity release will show whether the June quarter's rise in commencements held. Until then, the state has two honest numbers that point in different directions: more than 15,000 homes approved through one programme, and seven more homes completed across the whole state.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
