How Australia’s holiday playground became its most overpopulated city - realestate.com.au

[ad_1] Gridlocked visitors and housing stress are penalties when cities push previous their capability

It’s official — visitors gridlock and a housing disaster have dulled the Glitter Strip’s sparkle, with the Gold Coast named the nation’s most over-populated metropolis.

Analysis pinpointing the ‘magic quantity’ of residents for peak sustainability and liveability has shed new mild on the perfect metropolis measurement the place housing, jobs, transport and providers function in steadiness.

The nation’s favorite vacation playground of the Gold Coast was worst ranked as essentially the most overstretched from amongst 655 Aussie cities included within the main examine by the Monash Institute of Transport Research.

The Gold Coast has outgrown its excellent measurement by about 14 per cent, the examine discovered

The Gold Coast was sitting at about 14 per cent above its capability, forward of the NSW Central Coast at 13, and Murray Bridge (South Australia) at 12 per cent.

Melbourne, Sydney and the Sunshine Coast had been additionally over capability, risking greater prices and infrastructure pressure, whereas Perth and the small South Australian city of Port Pirie had been close to their excellent inhabitants measurement, the examine discovered.

Researchers from Monash College analysed cities of all sizes to find out the ‘magic quantity’ for a sustainable future

To find out a metropolis’s excellent measurement, researchers used 4 well-known measures of metropolis progress and performance: capital metropolis standing, entry to jobs, the combination of providers on supply, and the way properly it’s related.

Gridlocked visitors in Melbourne, which was additionally working above capability

The outcomes confirmed cities working inside 4 per cent of their excellent capability saved renters a median of $1,560 a yr, or $5.3b nationally, whereas 44,000 extra folks may stroll to work each day, and 275,000 households may reduce on automobiles.

Lead creator Affiliate Professor Liton Kamruzzaman highlighted options like higher transport hyperlinks, extra balanced job places, and fairer land-use guidelines to assist cities get to their “excellent” measurement.

“When a metropolis grows too massive, the indicators are clear; longer commutes, visitors jams, hovering rents, and overcrowded providers,” he mentioned.

“However when it’s too small, useful infrastructure and alternatives go to waste.

A house in Port Pirie, SA, listed at $319,000

“Utilizing this analysis as a benchmark, new cities could possibly be designed with a inhabitants vary that avoids the pitfalls of over- or under-capacity, whereas present ones might be recalibrated by way of coverage levers like transport hyperlinks or decentralised jobs.”

Affiliate Professor Kamruzzaman mentioned the examine confirmed it was not about whether or not a metropolis was small or massive, however relatively how its methods may deal with the inhabitants.

The examine discovered the Gold Coast was working in a state of “stress”, as a result of speedy inhabitants progress outpacing infrastructure growth.

It comes as residence costs on the Gold Coast shut in on Sydney, with values surging virtually 9 per cent previously yr, greater than twice the tempo of the market chief, newest PropTrack information exhibits.

REA Group senior economist Eleanor Creagh

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September’s House Value Index discovered the Gold Coast median home value was now $1.32m, the one regional market within the nation the place costs outstrip its capital.

REA Group senior economist Eleanor Creagh mentioned it was doubtless native property costs would hold rising, given continued sturdy interstate migration.

“You’ve acquired life-style, demand, hybrid work, flexibility, infrastructure funding forward of the upcoming Olympic Video games,” Ms Creagh mentioned.

“There have been plenty of components actually underpinning demand on the Gold Coast.”

<img class="styles__StyledImage-sc-17n6uwl-1 hlcJVa size-full wp-post- wp-image-1055318" loading="eager" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1055318" data-capiid="f19b6352b48ce2e3fbd713c8602f51d3" width="1280" height="720" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1280 720"%3E%3C/svg%3E" srcset="" alt="Finbar Group's Civic Heart apartment and retail development in South Perth. Picture: Stephen Heath Photography - for herald sun real estate"/> Perth was now near its excellent measurement

An earlier report by Anglicare Southern Queensland painted a stark image of town’s rental market, revealing “near zero inexpensive choices” for low-income earners or these on revenue help.

The charity’s 2025 Rental Affordability Snapshot revealed a “deterioration” in general circumstances over the previous 12 months, with the Gold Coast the area’s least inexpensive centre.

“The dearth of secure, inexpensive and acceptable housing is not only a housing challenge – it’s a neighborhood challenge,” Anglicare Southern Queensland CEO Sue Cooke mentioned.