Regional Victoria's growth land: room for 188,000 lots, more than half around Geelong and Ballarat

The Victorian Government's Urban Development Program, which maps Melbourne's growth land, also maps it for 20 regional towns. Its data, as at June 2024, has room for about 188,000 lots.

Stage	Lots
Lots in approved subdivisions, not yet titled	13,392
Land zoned for housing, not yet subdivided	62,630
Land set aside, still needing a precinct structure plan	111,797
Total	187,819

60% of regional Victoria's growth land is still waiting for a plan, against nearly 40% of Melbourne's.

By town

Town	Lots	Of which still needing a plan
Geelong	57,197	42,607
Ballarat	43,143	32,650
Shepparton	15,068	12,167
Bacchus Marsh	12,425	10,850
Warragul	10,957	none
Bendigo	10,739	4,752
Mildura	8,861	5,647
Drouin	6,936	none
Bellarine	6,692	2,162

Geelong and Ballarat together hold more than half of the lots. Warragul and Drouin, on the Princes Freeway in West Gippsland, are the largest whose growth land is all zoned already: about 18,000 lots between them. In the Latrobe Valley (Traralgon, Morwell, Moe, Newborough and Churchill) the total is about 9,500.

Growth zones outside the program

The program covers 20 towns. Councils elsewhere zone land for growth too. Victoria's planning maps show Urban Growth Zone land in Warrnambool and Wodonga, and in Geelong, Ballarat, Shepparton, Mildura and the Macedon Ranges beyond what the state's growth-area authority lists. Property pages there now show it under Growth Areas.

How we counted

• From the Urban Development Program's regional greenfield land data (Department of Transport and Planning, CC BY 4.0), as at June 2024. Lots are the program's estimates; a lot usually becomes one home.
• Lots already titled are left out. Urban Growth Zone land is from Vicmap Planning (CC BY 4.0).
• Melbourne's growth land is in Melbourne's next suburbs.