How this Australian city (kinda) beat the housing crisis

Housing affordability has become a major issue in many cities across the globe - but has Melbourne, Australia found the solution?

With the current cost of living crisis, there has been an increasing focus on housing affordability - because in cities across the world buying property or even renting has become incredibly expensive.

However, one Australian city seems to have come up with a solution - at least sort of.

That city is Melbourne, and while its housing is still quite expensive, its Australia's cheapest city to rent in, has a median property price significantly lower than the national median, and if we compare it to similarly sized Sydney its just a lot more affordable.

So in this video, we'll look at how Melbourne has remained more affordable, what other cities can learn from this, but also what else Melbourne should do to make its housing even more affordable.

[jack]

The biggest problem is that fuelled by the media, politicians and voters continue to view increasing property values as a good thing.

[leightonm]

Melbourne does have some dystopian car dependent outer suburbs.

[ApeOnABike]

Flying into Melbourne I always notice the appalling levels of sprawl and low density housing. Increases to city density or not, the rapidly growing urban footprint is the thing that stands out.

When increasing supply comes at the cost of land degradation though ever more greenfields suburbs I don’t consider it a win. Not to say Melbourne is alone in this. Recent announcements for greenfields developments here in south east Queensland are equally bad. As long as sprawl continues unabated, I don’t think there is any cause for celebration.

“For better cities, it's not enough to start doing the right things. You need to also stop doing the wrong things. That's often harder.” - Brent Toderian (City Planner and Urbanist)

[Goodcomment]

This is probably the most accurate analysis on Melbourne’s housing affordability I’ve seen. I’m constantly rolling my eyes at the media hype and social media comments regarding “the housing crisis” which has reached fever pitch despite affordability improving in Melbourne for a while. In Melbourne, since 2017 houses have gone up at less than half as much as wage growth and apartments have actually dropped. Housing is below the 20 year average of price to income and apartments are probably the cheapest on record. On top of this there’s been a series of YIMBY type policies implemented in the last year or so that haven’t had time to have an impact yet.
Agree that there’s been a development gap between 1 and 2 bedroom apartments in the inner city and houses in new estates. However, In addition to the townhouse policy, a lot of apartment developers are now targeting high end apartments for downsizes which seems to be a market response in relation to demand and increased building costs. Regardless, it should also free up family homes in established suburbs.
Great video!

[JohnFromAccounting]

Melbourne is still out of reach for most people, but other cities are a lot worse. Another decade and Melbourne might be in a good spot again.

[bigdudeohyeah]

The only thing getting in the way of large apartments is the way that most modern complexes are developed for investors rather than residents. It would probably have to be encouraged by governments. Building standards have been improving in recent years, but they could always be better.

With that being said, Small townhouse and apartment complexes are great. It's much easier to run a body corporate when you see the other members every day.

We also need to increase the capital gains tax. That decision has probably impacted house prices the most

[peanutbutterpancake]

The housing development areas in melbourne are an absolute abomination. So much flat, empty land is being turned into one massive parking lot, with crippling congestion and lackluster public transport. Such ugly suburbs, truly grim.

[NorrthStar]

coincidentally Melbourne became a target for me to migrate too once I discovered the affordability, specifically townhomes and apartments

[willpendlebury]

The issue is land banking property developers are hoarding 10s of thousands of houses in order to drive up the prices of their developments

[julianwalsh]

Your point about family apartments hits home for me. Here in Shellharbour, we have very few apartments, and what we do have are luxury 1-3 bedders. Even in Wollongong, a 4 bedroom apartment is hard to come by, and you’ll pay a pretty penny for it. Let alone the 5-bedder that my family would need. Urban sprawl and car dependency for me it is then I guess.

[DerraKormino]

I've been watching the housing market closely, Prices have been skyrocketing for years. It's going to be tough for first-time buyers to enter the market." how can one diversify $280k reserve .

[MrPsychochickens]

Imagine if they paired all this with adding too the Public Housing supply instead of demolishing most of it and selling most of it off to "affordable housing" and private housing.

[VanillaMacaron]

Townhouses are great, especially if they are oriented to capture maximum sunlight from the north (in the southern hemisphere). They make efficient use of space but need very solid shared walls between neighbours.

[ARBITRAGEandTIME]

the construction quality vastly needs to improve! 🧐 the apartment floorplans need to also get better to attract people

[Suburban_Shepard]

as someone who has not been able to afford a rental in melbourne, let alone find decent ones that aren't mould ridden... I'm hesitant to even open this video, as this just is not the experience that I have seen, heard, or experienced at all. It's also been an incredible amount of trauma, to the point that I am not sure I can handle life anymore. I cannot meet my basic needs in this country, a place that I grew up in. Melbourne is not solving any homelessness crisis at all... On many factors it is stemming it harder and harder, and the culture here looks down upon anyone who can't meet it's endless demands. Housing is getting worse too with more airbnbs, investors, etc etc. I've lived here most of my life, and have seen the culture shift into holding 8 homes as investment properties becoming the "norm". When you kick down eight families in order to prop up your own, you don't have a society, you have a slaughter.

Melbourne is one of the few places in the world that has no cap on rental increases year by year. One year my rent increased by 40%, there was nothing I could do about it. I've also seen just in general the homes go from around 600$ per week to 850 per week, in barely a year. It's not sustainable at all, and as someone who is disabled, the money coming from government to support us is nowhere near enough. My current place is around 450 a week, which I need for my disability, the amount of money I get through the government is 450$ a week. Meaning I start each week at 0$, and am completely reliant on other organisations just to feed myself, let alone get to support groups etc.

People here these days just see people as profit, they do not see humans anymore. There's genuinely microtransactions that you have to deal with as a renter to get "better chances". Have a look at the website "sorted" - it's got a feature that tells you if you pay them 30$ you will go to the top of the rental queue. Where will we be in a year, let alone 10 years?

[athiedoll]

Have only just started this but this is wild to see as someone who just spent 3 years homeless here in Melbourne.

[faarfaar]

Yet I had to leave because I couldnt afford rent...
Now still cant afford it but paying 35% less while earning the same.

[danielsimpson]

just like economists, when you use averages you really have no idea of what is going on.

[dewnews]

Remember how housing speculators crashed Japan and created the lost decade? Toriyama based Frieza off of them

[zacdredge]

As a Victorian let me just clarify that a lot of the housing developed in recent years is not in Melbourne at all; Tarneit and Wyndhamvale have grown exponentially as are several satellite suburbs that if we're counting them as 'Melbourne' that places the suburban sprawl far outside what is currently being calculated.
Furthermore the bulk builders that achieve these outcomes are problematic for multiple reasons I'm not intending to sum up in a comment.