This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE Mickleham and Yuroke area, north of Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport, is the number one building hotspot in the country, recording population growth of 32.8% and $412.1 million in building approvals.
HIA’s 2021 edition of its Population and Residential Building Hotspots report had Melbourne locations occupying for four of the top five places on the list, and six of the top nine.
Rockbank-Mount Cottrell area in Melbourne’s west in second place, with nearly $502 million of building approvals over 2019/20 and an annual population growth rate of 29.1%.
The top pairing have been regulars in the national top 20 list in recent years.
Riverstone-Marsden Park in Sydney came in third, with $926.5 million of approvals – by far the highest on the list – and population growth of 27.8%.
Large gaps separated that and fourth-placed Wollert in Melbourne’s north east ($431.1 million and 20.3%) and Cranbourne South, in the south east, in fifth ($209.1 million and 15.9%).
Rounding out the top 10 were Cobbitty-Leppington, Werribee-West, Rouse Hill-Beaumont Hills, Cranbourne East, and Wolfdene-Bahrs Scrub, which at 10th was the highest-ranked Queensland location. Springfield Lakes was next.
HIA economist, Angela Lillicrap said a record year for detached house building is underway with over 146,000 detached starts expected in the 12 months to September 2021. This will come in at 20% higher than the previous peak in 2018, and has been driven by the federal government’s HomeBuilder grant, while coming at the expense of the national apartment pipeline.
“Australia’s population growth has been constrained due to closed borders. COVID-19 has also seen consumer preferences shift away from inner-city apartment style living to detached housing in regional areas.”
“This shift could see more regional areas in the next edition of HIA’s Population and Building Hotspots report.”
Greenway in Tuggeranong was the highest-ranking ACT location, at 15th.
Also making the national list were western Melbourne locations Melton South, Truganina and Tarneit, Geelong’s Grovedale, Ballarat’s Alfredton, Sydney spots Ingleburn-Denham Court and Austral-Greendale, and inner Brisbane’s West End.
The report is aimed at finding employment growth areas targeted towards builders and tradies and identifies hotspots in all states and territories. Nationally, an area qualifies if at least $150 million worth of residential building work was approved during the 2019/20 financial year, and its rate of population growth is faster than the 1.3% national average.
The HIA believes the main hurdle in the industry is no longer the slump in demand experienced throughout with peak of COVID-19, but instead meeting this high demand with supply.
Supply of labour, materials and land to satisfy heightened demand are expected to further drive up costs, leading to long delays, shortages and price gouging.
