Introduced in 2020 and bolstered in 2023 as part of the Victorian Government’s Housing Statement, the Development Facilitation Program (DFP) was established to speed up the planning permit process for priority projects in the state.
Recent analysis by The Age has identified that more than 70 major projects have been approved though the DFP, with at least 40 more to be considered.
The DFP allows Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny or the Department of Transport and Planning to fast-track planning permits for housing, commercial and industrial projects, bypassing councils in the process.
To be approved for a ministerial permit, a project has to demonstrate that it will create significant economic development, be a significant residential development with affordable housing or be a great design fast track (facilitating desirable residential development).
A ministerial permit can be granted for projects in the advanced manufacturing and defence, agriculture and rural industry, digital technologies, education centre (excluding primary or secondary schools), health (private hospitals and day procedure centres), medical technology, mining and extractive industry, professional services, residential development with affordable housing, retail, visitor economy, arts and recreation facilities, warehouse and logistics, renewable energy or utility installation (other than a data centre) sectors.
One ministerial permit was recently granted in Boronia for the development of property investment firm Charter Hall’s Mountain Highway Logistics Hub, an industrial estate which will feature four separate warehouses.
Charter Hall was contacted for comment.
According to a publicly available but redacted Assessment Officer Report, the entire development will cost about $77.63 million on the 168,000 square metre site, with Stage 1 of the project including a 2081 square metre office space and 31,582 square metre warehouse as well as parking for 272 cars, 10 motorcycles and 12 bicycles. The report anticipates the first warehouse having as many as 225 staff on site at any one time.
A Knox City Council spokesperson said the Minister for Planning is the responsible authority for 1061 Mountain Highway, Boronia.
“Council was consulted as part of the Minister considering the application,” they said.
The applicant first lodged a pre-application through the DFP on 15 November 2024 with early consultation undertaken following before the final application was received on 15 April 2025, made public on 17 April and a permit granted 25 June, meaning the entire permit process took just over seven months.
Future stages of the development will include smaller warehouses, each around 10,000 square metres and smaller office spaces with extra parking. All warehouses are expected to operate continuously for 24 hours a day all week once in operation. Practical completion is expected by late 2026.
The site was formerly owned by the British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company GlaxoSmithKline who ceased operations at the site in October 2020 and according to a 2021 article from Real Estate Source, was sold to Charter Hall for $106 million in 2021.
At the time, Charter Hall’s chief investment officer Sean McMahon told Real Estate Source that they intended to develop the rest of the site as a pharmaceutical manufacturing and business hub.
“In parallel, we will investigate other employment related uses in this zone that will complement the precinct,” he said.
“This increases our exposure to the rapidly growing life sciences sector and is a further demonstration of our ability to work with corporates to deliver efficient solutions to their property requirements.”
