Working to protect family housing in Freemantle...

Protecting Family Housing in Freemantle from HMO's...

July 2011

Over recent years many residents living in Freemantle have become concerned at the number of residential developments many feel are inappropriate and detrimental to the community as a whole within Freemantle.

We believe in appropriate and correct developments that aid and add something to our ward community. The trend over recent years has been to convert many established and long standing family homes into HMO's (Houses in Multiple Occupation).

HMO's are houses where 2 or more households reside and share one or more of the basic amenities such as toilet, bath and kitchen facilities. Due to the layout and size of many of the houses with in Freemantle it can be very financially rewarding for developers to convert family homes in to multiple resident dwellings.

Residents have told us that in high concentrations HMOs can be associated with parking pressures, increased noise and anti social behaviour. As a council we have worked hard to introduce new planning regulations and from March 2012 planning rules will be introduced to require planning permission for new HMOs and limits will be set to ensure that we retain balanced communities locally.

As your Freemantle Councillors we will always respond to inappropriate developments on your behalf and vow to protect family housing within Freemantle to protect our community.