Blocks of apartments are being sold and razed to make way for luxury mansions in desirable inner suburbs, despite the state government’s ambitions for increased housing density in Melbourne. The Age has seen multiple examples of walk-up flats in the bayside municipality of Port Phillip being converted to a single large home – a trend which has prompted planners to call on the Allan government to establish new controls preventing cases of net dwelling loss if it is serious about its housing goals . Former Port Phillip councillor Marcus Pearl outside a block of flats on Hambleton Street, Albert Park that are set to be bulldozed for a single luxury house.
Credit: Jason South In one case, a block of five brick flats at Hambleton Street, Albert Park, was sold in July along with approved plans for demolition and an opulent new $2.7 million home. Nearby, on a 1000-square-metre block at Richardson Street, a modern mansion sits where 17 apartments once stood.
A block of nine flats in Merton Street sold last month for $4.22 million to a buyer intending to replace them with one large home or three modern apartments. In Nelson Road, South Melbourne, a group of neighbours is challenging an approved plan to knock down six apartments and build a $2 million luxury house through the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The Age has seen a copy of Port Phillip Council’s submission to Plan for Victoria, a development road map the government is preparing to unveil in December. The c.