Victorian apartment, unit and townhouse buyers to get stamp duty ...

The Victorian government is slashing stamp duty for new apartments, units and townhouses as it tries to give the state's housing market a boost.

Premier Jacinta Allan on Monday announced a 12-month stamp duty concession for anyone buying an apartment, unit or townhouse when they buy off-the-plan.

The concession allows all construction costs to be deducted from the sale price when calculating stamp duty.

Previously, a concession was offered to first home buyers and owner-occupiers, but was capped as the reduced value of properties had to be under $750,000 for first home buyers and $550,000 for owner-occupiers.

The cap has been removed so the concession will apply to dwellings of any value and any buyer can access the discount.

The government estimates the concession will mean someone buying an apartment off-the-plan is likely to pay around a quarter of the stamp duty they would have paid otherwise.

The new concession does not apply to house and land packages or other dwellings without strata subdivisions, and first home buyers and owner occupiers can continue to access the other existing concessions when purchasing those properties. 

Ms Allan said the move would help more people get onto the property ladder.

"It will get more of these projects away sooner and what does that mean? That unlocks more homes for everyone," she said.

"We know that we have to provide more of a mix into our homes. We need to see more apartments, townhouses and units come onstream to be built around our suburbs."

Premier Jacinta Allan is promising a week of housing announcements. (ABC News)

The government hopes it will also provide more work for struggling builders.

"The builders said to me very clearly: we need extra help, we need a stimulus and they said they've got off-the-plan apartments, units and townhouses that they can get moving," Ms Allan said.

"They are facing some tough conditions that have been faced by the industry right around the country but particularly those successive interest rate rises." 

Treasurer Tim Pallas argued the move would not necessarily drive property prices up.

"Does it push property prices up by allowing a short-term measure for investors, or does it stabilise and in some cases reduce property prices by increasing the volume of stock in the market?" he said.

"I would argue that this will be a net positive for the market."

The Victorian opposition said tax concessions would not help people in the property market if there was not enough supply to meet demand.

Shadow Planning Minister James Newbury told ABC Radio Melbourne available stocks were too low.

"We are at an over-a-decade low. We're nearly half of what the government promised there would be," he said.

"This year there will be 45,000 built out of the 80,000 promised. What the government's saying is 'we'll give you a tax cut', but the stock number is way too low, we need to build the supply up."

The premier said the most recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed the building sector was rebounding "in a really strong way".

"The latest ABS data shows us that for completions, 60,000 homes have been completed here in Victoria in the last year — 15,000 more than NSW."

Concerned residents gathered in Brighton over the weekend in response to the premier's announcement of 50 new higher-density zones.

The stamp duty announcement follows yesterday's announcement of dozens of new higher-density zones designed to kickstart the building of hundreds of thousands of homes.

The new "activity centres" will include the construction of taller residential buildings in 50 areas, with "gentler, scaled height limits" and low-rise apartments further back.

The announcement sparked a small protest from some Brighton residents but was welcomed by the Property Council.