How building more apartments could make these rich Melbourne suburbs more inclusive
Building more apartments in some of Melbourne's most affluent postcodes would desegregate rich suburbs and allow more middle-class people to live in desirable locations, a new analysis by advocates of higher density living suggests.
But prominent planners have criticised the Victorian government's activity centre scheme, and say it won't deliver the affordable housing it promises but will instead radically alter Melbourne's cultural heritage.
RMIT University Emeritus Professor Michael Buxton last week told an inquiry into new planning rules that the government had held 'secretive' consultation into key changes that would allow greater housing density and fewer avenues for community and council objections.
The Allan government has unveiled 60 planned activity centres, which are slated for higher-density living as part of the plan to encourage developers to build hundreds of thousands of new homes.
New data shows that most of the activity centres are slated for wealthy suburbs with very little socioeconomic diversity. However, they also include areas around Dandenong, which are more disadvantaged.
Of the 50 recently announced activity centres, 60 per cent are located in the richest 10 per cent of the state's local government areas, such as the suburbs of Brighton, Camberwell, Hampton, Hawthorn, Kew Junction, Malvern, Prahran, Glen Huntly and Sandringham.
More than 90 per cent of the activity centres are within the top 50 per cent of advantaged areas, based on the Australia Bureau of Statistics' index of relative socioeconomic disadvantage.
Asanka Epa, a Melbourne organiser from pro-housing advocacy group YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard), analysed Victoria's scheme and found the activity centres are slated for areas that middle-class people had been locked out of, particularly in the inner east.
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