About 40 pensioners are on the waiting list to go into one of their properties - a major turnaround from recent times when they had 15 vacancies.

Heatherlie Homes unveiled plans earlier this year for a $4.17 million 13-unit development on Princess Street and had hoped to start works in July but it was still awaiting planning approval.

Chairman Charlie Armistead said there was such a long waiting list that work on another housing development for retirees on land it owns opposite the railway station on Merri Street could get the green light sooner then planned.

"We've got a huge waiting list already. That makes me think the Merri Street project may go ahead a bit sooner rather than later," he said.

"In my time as chair we've had times where we've had 15 vacancies. It's just the way things are at the moment, the Baby Boomers are all reaching that age."

Originally slated to start in about five years, Mr Armistead said that may now be brought forward.

"Demand seems to be out there at the moment," he said.

Plans for the 3600-square-metre site have yet to be drawn up, but earlier this year Heatherlie Homes said it could house up to 30 units.

In preparation for the future development, a house on the site was demolished last week.

Mr Armistead said the house, which they had only owned for about 12 months, had "pretty severe cracking" in the front wall which sat right on the footpath.

He said someone complained to the council and engineers were called in to assess the structure.

While the house had been deemed safe, Heatherlie Homes decided it would be better to knock it down.

"It was actually a dump," he said.

"It wasn't worth spending money on. It had to be knocked over at some stage, probably sooner rather than later, to stop us having to get engineering reports to prove that it was still safe."

Mr Armistead said, however, that they were was renovating the house next door which they planned to lease out.

He said it was hoped approval for the Princess Street development would come through in the next few weeks.

Heatherlie is also still waiting to hear if an application for a $750,000 federal government grant has been successful which would help them provide housing for those in need.

Mr Armistead said Heatherlie Homes already had about 100 units which catered for people aged 55 and over - and a greater percentage of them were widows.

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