Booming Melbourne to become nation's largest city by 2026

  • By Peter Gordon
  • •
  • 08 Aug, 2019

Melbourne is adding 327 people a day as it draws residents from around the globe and around the state with new figures revealing the city's population swelling and on track to overtake Sydney within a decade.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed the Greater Melbourne area added 119,421 residents through 2017-18, taking the city's total population to a record 5 million.

It's the fourth successive year in which Melbourne has added more than 100,000 residents although last year's result was slightly down on the 125,424 who swelled the city in 2016-17.

Melbourne reached 4.5 million residents in mid-2016 and has now added more than 460,000 people in three years. Over the same period, Sydney added 300,000 residents.

Based on current growth rates, Melbourne will overtake Sydney as the nation's most populous city in 2026. The last time Melbourne was larger than Sydney was early last century.

Of Melbourne's total population increase through the year, 65 per cent of it was due to overseas migration.

The figures also point to problems in the Morrison government's plans to encourage migrants to areas outside Sydney and Melbourne.

Just four migrants made their way to two Victorian councils, West Wimmera and Gannawarra through the entire year. The Melbourne council area was the new home for 8873 net overseas migrants.

Only the much larger Brisbane council area, which covers 1342 square kilometres compared to Melbourne's 37 square kilometres, had a larger increase in net overseas migrants.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, announcing a range of road projects aimed at reducing congestion in suburban Sydney on Wednesday, said the government understood the importance of encouraging new overseas migrants into parts of the country outside of Sydney and Melbourne.

"We know that there's a lot of pressure on our cities and we are going to continue to ensure that there is a positive migration program to Australia, but we're going to ensure that the benefits of that are spread more broadly across the country," he said.

Next week's federal budget will confirm a cut in the official migrant intake to 160,000.

Of the 10 fastest growing parts of Australia, four were in Melbourne. They were led by the Rockbank-Mount Cottrell in the city's north-west where the population grew by 59 per cent to 6455 through the year.

While there was strong growth across most of Victoria, some parts of the state suffered de-population. Ten council areas led by Hindmarsh, centred on the north-western town of Nhill, saw a fall in the number of local residents.

Nationally, capital cities now account for 67.5 per cent of all residents, with Sydney still the largest with 5.2 million people.

The bureau of statistics' demography director, Beidar Cho, said the nation's capitals kept powering population growth.

"The number of people living in our capital cities increased by 307,800 people in 2017-18. This in on par with the average growth over the previous three years," he said.

Darwin's total population fell by 355 despite it being home to one of the fastest growing suburbs in the country while regional Western Australia shed 583 residents even as Perth's total resident count increased by more than 21,500.

CommSec chief economist Craig James said the figures showed the stark differences in population growth between the nation's capital cities and its regions.

"The latest regional population data highlights the need for re-balancing of both internal and overseas migration flows," he said.

"Population growth in major capital cities is soaring in relation to regional Australia. In fact population is going backwards in Darwin as well as in regional and rural Western Australia."

Article courtesy SMH 27/3/19

The Victorian government has a plan for this growth. Rather than just allowing urban sprawl to expand endlessly, it wants to shift some of this growth to its second and third largest cities, Geelong and Ballarat. Both of these cities have established infrastructure with room to grow. This is why Geelong & Ballarat are ticking all the boxes for us at the moment. 

For more info on investment opportunities  - contact the team at Investo

Introducing The Palms Estate, Cairns - The Northern Beach's Premier Address

By Peter Gordon • April 26, 2023

Quiet simply, the Palms is the place to buy!

The northern beaches of Cairns is the Nation's best location for property investors right now, and The Palms is the premier development in this boom region.

It has the best location being elevated and backing onto the rainforest. It will have amazing facilities with a shopping village, a primary school, parks and green open space, a water park and an expanse of wildlife corridors.

It has taken the developers three years to get planning approval for this unique development to be able to hit the market. There are only 300 lots spread across 85 acres of the best land in The Northern Beaches.  Residents will have an abundance of open space right at their doorstep.  The Palms is also the only Certified Enviro Development project in Far North Queensland.

> Cairns Snapshot

In the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne, the winner is ... Brisbane

By Peter Gordon • April 20, 2023

Sydneysiders and Melburnians, put aside your equally outstanding flat whites for a moment. Stop bickering about whether great beaches beat cool laneways (they do) and desist from debating whether all baristas require waxed moustaches (ideally).

Because Brisbane is closing in on the title of Australia’s best city, and we must join forces to keep this subtropical upstart in its place.

Time  magazine recently named Brisvegas on its “World’s Greatest Places” list, and omitted our cities. It’s a huge shock (and who knew they still published Time  magazine?). But they might be onto something.

Time  points to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will be hosted in the maroon metropolis. Brisbane will do a fine job, even though it’ll baffle the world when rugby league is added to the schedule and Queensland is allowed to field its own team.

Time’s  most radical claim is that Brisbane is worth visiting now, but tourism is surging. Not only did Lin-Manuel Miranda recently drop in to catch Hamilton , but hundreds of Hamilfans flew up to watch his interview with Leigh Sales (presumably unaware that it would subsequently arrive on iView for free).

Incredible Lifestyle At An Affordable Price  Equity of approx $390K on completion

By Peter Gordon • April 6, 2023
This small duplex development just a short drive from Hervey Bay on Queensland’s beautiful Fraser Coast, offers an incredible lifestyle at an affordable price. With unprecedented demand and very limited supply, prices look set to skyrocket.

A leading local agent has appraised each side of these duplex's to be worth $665k on completion and rent for $495 per week. So that is massive potentail instant equity of up to $390K on completion, which is incredibly hard to find.
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