Webinar: Our home choices

Our home choices: how more housing options can make better use of Victoria’s infrastructure 

Buying into Victoria’s housing market is becoming increasingly challenging.

Households on moderate incomes, many of which are families and first home buyers, are being locked out of Melbourne’s middle suburbs, pushing them further away from jobs, schools and public transport, and locking them in to more travel time in the car. Building in new areas can make infrastructure costs 2 to 4 times higher than situating homes in established areas where there is existing capacity. With Melbourne on track to become Australia’s largest city, we’re going to need to get smarter about how we plan for where people can live.

Infrastructure Victoria has released new research into the home preferences of Victorians and the factors influencing their decisions, to gain new insights into the choices available to people. Our home choices: how more housing options can make better use of Victoria’s infrastructure is the largest survey of housing preferences ever conducted in Australia. The report offers 10 policy options for the Victorian Government to support more choice for moderate income households who prefer to live in established suburbs. This includes fast-tracking planning approval for high-quality townhouses, better standards for low-rise apartments and changes to developer infrastructure contributions.

Watch the recording from our webinar on the findings below, including audience Q&A and you can view the slide pack here. The conversation includes Infrastructure Victoria CEO Jonathan Spear, Director of Research and Economics Llewellyn Reynders and Principal Planner Kath Phelan.