The Victorian Government is drawing up plans for the future of Melbourne, and they’ve got quite a task ahead of them. Melbourne’s population is expected to increase by half, from the current 4.1 million. This means an extra two million residents in less than 40 years.
BY MICHAEL YARDNEY
This influx is sobering when you consider the amount of infrastructure required to support that many new inhabitants.
The Planning for Community Infrastructure in Growth Areas report reveals we’ll need eight new hospitals, 67 secondary schools, 125 new maternal and child health centres and 222 kindergartens by 2050 to cater for the city’s booming population.
There are just over four million people living in Melbourne today and its population is projected to grow by about 65,000 new residents each year over the next decade.
There are currently 1.63 million private dwellings in Melbourne, of which about 15 per cent are apartments. Over 70 per cent of Melbournians own their own home with almost half of these owning them outright (with no mortgage).
While on average there are 2.6 people per dwelling, almost one-quarter of the city’s residents live alone. In fact, less than half of Melbourne’s homes have children living in them.
These figure suggest we’re going to need around 760,000 new dwellings in less than 40 years, of which close to 250,000 could be apartments. You see, our changing lifestyles mean more Victorians are going to trade their quarter-acre block for a balcony and the percentage of apartments in Melbourne is likely to grow closer to 30 per cent.
Melbourne is regularly voted one of the world’s most liveable cities, but to maintain this mantle our governments will have an important role to play by investing in key infrastructure in a timely manner.
Melbourne’s strong population growth and increasing affluence, coupled with the fact many people will want to live in suburbs close to where the action is, will ensure the value of carefully selected properties will keep increasing over the long term.
The trick will be to own the type of property that’ll be in continuous strong demand by a large proportion of these new residents, and for many, this is likely to be well located apartments.
Michael Yardney is the director of Metropole Property Investment Strategists, which creates wealth for its clients through independent, unbiased property advice and advocacy. He’s a best-selling author, one of Australia’s leading experts in wealth creation through property and writes the Property Investment Update blog.
