Since the pandemic, it has been hard to avoid them.
asserted
it → avoid → them
Even walking around the city centre has been a reminder of vibrancy lost.
asserted
walking → walk → vibrancy
For the city hardest hit by the pandemic, the road back is a long one.
asserted
road → hit → pandemic
But Victoria has gone from a relatively rich state to a relatively poor state, ahead of only Tasmania and South Australia.
asserted
Victoria → go → Tasmania
And with healthcare spending on the rise, infrastructure investment still at record levels, and the threat of a difficult bushfire season ahead, budget pressures aren’t likely to ease any time soon.
asserted
pressures → ease → season
Melbourne has long held a strong position in the battle of Australian cities when it comes to quality of life.
asserted
it → hold → life
It has consistently ranked as Australia’s most liveable city, and during much of the 2010s as the most liveable in the world.
asserted
It → rank → world
This year it was voted Time Out’s best city worldwide.
asserted
it → vote → ?
Culture, sports, food, trams, and green spaces have made Melbourne marvellous.
asserted
Melbourne → make → ?
But right now, the real ace Melbourne has up its sleeve is its housing market.
asserted
Melbourne → have → sleeve
The steep – and damaging – climb in the cost of housing seen across Australia since the pandemic has not hit every city evenly.
asserted
climb → see → city
This makes a material difference to the cost of living for Melburnians.
asserted
This → make → Melburnians
In Melbourne, median rents for newly advertised dwellings are around 40 per cent of the median full-time wages of those aged 25-34.
asserted
rents → advertise → those
In Sydney, median rent chews up half of the equivalent median wage.
asserted
rent → chew → wage
Not only does your wage go further in Melbourne, but affordable housing – particularly homes for rent – is a vital support to a healthy labour market.
asserted
housing → go → market
It supports mobility and allows people to take a chance and try new things.
asserted
people → support → things
If you are a young professional looking to build your career, say in a national firm, there are very good reasons to take a job in the Melbourne office.
asserted
you → look → office
If you are an employer in Melbourne, the wage pressures you face at each salary review are not as acute as Sydney, Brisbane or Perth.
asserted
you → face → Sydney
If you are creative, or a freelancer, you will have a better shot building your base out of Melbourne.
asserted
you → have → Melbourne
And the more skilled, creative or otherwise entrepreneurial people move to Melbourne, the more the city benefits from “agglomeration”, reaching a critical mass where networks form and exciting things happen.
asserted
things → move → mass
This has happened in cities down on their luck before: Montreal in the late 1990s, setting the stage for the creative boom in the early 2000s.
asserted
This → happen → 2000s
It’s hard to disentangle how much of weaker house price growth in Melbourne is down to supply growth, a weaker economy or reforms to land taxes.
asserted
much → ’ → taxes
But when it comes to slower growth in rents relative to incomes, the picture is clearer: in Melbourne there has been a steadier supply of housing to meet demands of population growth and smaller households.
asserted
picture → come → growth
But Victoria’s land use planning reforms are changing that.
asserted
reforms → change → that
These reforms are more substantial than those in NSW, and well ahead of Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth where restrictive low-density zones still cover most residential land.
asserted
zones → cover → land
The Grattan Institute estimated last year that Victoria’s reforms will increase zoned capacity equivalent to 70 per cent of the existing housing stock, compared with 40 per cent for NSW.
asserted
reforms → estimate → NSW
This arises predominantly from the state’s new “Townhouse Code”, but also the much-publicised Activity Centre Program; both examples of measures to boost gentle and medium density in the places people most want to live, and close to jobs.
asserted
people → arise → jobs
None of this is cause for complacency: the Victorian government needs to stay the course on reforms to allow more homes in the places Melburnians want to live.
asserted
Melburnians → need → places
Construction productivity desperately needs a shot in the arm.
asserted
productivity → need → arm
Nor is it only about housing – you also need good transport networks, effective measures to bust congestion, and planning that makes the most of existing infrastructure rather than enabling more sprawl.
asserted
that → need → sprawl
Institutions like top-tier universities and globally leading firms also play a key role in agglomeration of knowledge workers and innovators, particularly through attracting the world’s best and brightest here.
asserted
Institutions → lead → best
Melbourne’s story is still being written.
asserted
story → write → ?
And a commitment to remaining the most affordable city to rent in Australia will make it even more marvellous.
asserted
it → remain → Australia
The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own.
asserted
that → challenge → own
The Aporia
