Back in September, CoreLogic released its vacant lot data, which revealed that the number of residential lots available across Melbourne has fallen sharply over the past eight years at the same time as the median lot value has soared by $100,000:
The same report also showed that the price per square metre of vacant lots in Melbourne has skyrocketed from $250 in March 2007 to $582 per square metre in March 2017:
Over the weekend, The AFR reported that first-home buyers (FHBs) are desperately fighting for land in Melbourne as the city’s population soars:
First-home buyers face fierce competition in Victoria’s fast-rising market, with only a quarter of the 84 lots in Stockland’s latest land release going to first-time buyers.
Shaneel Veerabathula was one of about 1400 people pre-registered last Saturday morning for the developer’s Mt Atkinson project in Tarneit, 25km west of Melbourne, but wasn’t sure if he would be successful.
“I was sitting at the computer at 10 o’clock,” Mr Veerabathula said. “I jumped in right away and we were 51st. My number was 51 and we had 84 lots. I was lucky to get one.”
Mr Veerabathula, a manager with BP Australia, and his wife Raga Navya secured a 350-square-metre lot for $275,000. They hope to move in at the end of 2019 to the house they’ll build on the site…
It’s only the first release in Stockland’s 315-hectare Mt Atkinson project, which will ultimately build 4000 homes over the next 20 years, but the land release suggests that even tax breaks can do little to make it easier for first-home buyers in a state undergoing its fastest pace of population growth in almost 60 years…
Stockland took 7500 enquiries in the run up to last Saturday’s ballot, which residential head Andrew Whitson called an “unprecedented level of demand” for any launch the company had done…
“The prices are out of control,” he said. “It was not an option in buy in an auction. There is such a high demand” [Mr Veerabathula said]…
“Everyone needs a home,” Mr Veerabathula said. “I know 10 people who don’t own a house. Ten of my friends are looking for a house in the market.”
We know from the Census that Melbourne’s population grew by a monstrous 126,000 people in the 2016 calendar year, and that Melbourne added just under one million people in the decade to 2016 – a 26% increase in the city’s population:
The State Government’s own forecasts, which surely will be revised upwards given the latest Census, also has Melbourne’s population growing by 97,000 people annually for the next 35 years, adding a monstrous 3.4 million to the city’s population (equivalent to adding Melbourne in 2001 to current day Melbourne):
Where will all of this new population go? And how will the State Government ensure that infrastructure and land release keeps up with the bulging population?
Melbourne’s population ponzi meltdown continues… And for what?
