A radical plan to allow three-storey apartments and townhouses to be built anywhere in Australia’s capital cities would deliver 67,000 extra homes a year, slash rents and give young people a chance at living close to their local CBD.

The independent Grattan Institute think tank estimates Melbourne could build an extra 431,000 homes within 15 kilometres of the city centre if property owners were freely able to build three-storey townhouses and apartments without a specialist planning permit.

Across all of Sydney, the institute estimates up to an extra one million homes could be commercially feasible if planning rules were overhauled.

Larger apartment blocks of six storeys or more would be given default permission around major transit centres such as railway stations and key commercial ce

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