These trends indicate further imbalance in our city housing systems may be yet to come, unless we can find ways to:
- Meet the increasing weight of demand and expectations of the growing Millennial group
- Increase the volume of rental homes available; and
- Increase the provision of medium and high-density homes to balance out the housing system.
At this point in the cycle, however, we continue to see the national pipeline of higher density housing stock trending down, with diminishing approvals and fewer projects launching for sale. This raises questions about whether the future volume of medium and high-density homes can keep pace with demand.
Build-to-rent the key to unlocking housing accessibility
If we want globally competitive attractive cities, we need to be able to offer the Millennial generation – including those migrating to or within Australia – liveable, productive communities close to jobs and fun.
The key to unlocking this potential could very well be to tap into the core drivers that appeal to them:
- Collaborative communities that are engaged and activated
- Security of tenure and onsite management
- Technology to boost user experience and operational efficiency for a better service
- Sustainability features and other community-minded values that appeal to residents
The emerging build-to-rent pipeline presents an opportunity to also start to balance the scales in housing supply by refuelling the pipeline and increasing the range of housing types supplied to the market. We believe build-to-rent is part of the solution in an evolving housing spectrum.
Data integrity and the health data set
While the ‘Data is King’ adage remains, it would appear that not all data is created equal, and the Census’ health data set is a good case in point.
Australia’s ageing population is evident with approximately one in three Australians reporting having one or more long-term chronic health conditions. Zooming into Victoria and comparing the Census results with those from the 2020 Victorian Population Health Survey (VPHS) some interesting discrepancies are revealed in terms of which Victorian Local Government Areas (LGA) self-report as the healthiest and unhealthiest.
