A broken dream: outer Melbourne has affordable houses but no train or school

In the first of a short series on Australian housing, Elias Visontay examines how Victoria's planning system is failing residents and the environment

When Jade Seenarain and his wife Aideanna bought the plot for their home in Truganina in Melbourne's west in 2015, the couple thought they were buying into a leafy, suburban dream.

They planned to build their ideal home and thought their lives would look something like the highly idealised vision presented by the Elements estate developers.