Creating Great Australian Cities report finds Melbourne’s prized liveability reputation at risk

MELBOURNE has held the title of most liveable city in the world for as long as we can remember. But the city’s reign is at risk. Here’s why and what needs done to fix it.

A new report says Melbourne is booming but needs to lift its game in some areas.

MELBOURNE is lagging behind many global cities in performance due to rising congestion, planning red tape and slow internet speeds, says a major new study.

The study ranked Melbourne 20th using 300 benchmarks analysing the world’s biggest and most globalised cities, with London, Singapore, Paris and New York taking the top spots.

Sydney outranked Melbourne at number 13, but the Victorian capital was rated ahead of Brisbane (40th), Adelaide (53rd) and Perth (58th), according to the Creating Great Australian Cities report.

OVERSEAS MIGRATION COMPRISES TWO-THIRDS OF MELBOURNE’S GROWTH

MELBOURNE’S FED SQUARE RANKS AS TOP TOURIST ATTRACTION

CENTRAL MELBOURNE ECONOMY BOOSTED BY 12.4 MILLION VISITORS

A new report says Melbourne is booming but needs to lift its game in some areas.

Report lead author Professor Greg Clark.

To be released Tuesday, the study was commissioned by the Property Council of Australia and led by British urbanist Professor Greg Clark from consultancy The Business of Cities.

It found that Australian cities like Melbourne had a “brand” that was better than their performance and identified the main weaknesses as:

SIGNIFICANT transport congestion due to low-density living;

FRAGMENTED local councils impeding metro development;

INFRASTRUCTURE investment lag; and

SLOW internet speeds.

With Melbourne’s population set to reach eight million by 2050, the report said the city was growing faster than the OECD average.

“Melbourne’s quality of life is its strongest brand asset — driving key export markets higher education, creative industries, tourism and science,” the report said.

“(But) Melbourne needs to follow its peers such as Auckland, Helsinki and Vancouver to improve the environment for entrepreneurship, invest in the metropolitan infrastructure platform — and boosting global trade and visitor links are key aspects of these cities’ strategies.”

Melbourne hosts the Australian Open.

The report urged Melbourne authorities to create more high-amenity, medium-density housing across the metro area “to support an innovation economy which requires a high level of interaction between talent, employers and amenity”.

Prof Clark said Melbourne was a wonderful city and very desirable internationally, much like the Swedish capital Stockholm.

“However, Stockholm — faced with many of the same challenges — has leveraged its scientific and university expertise to become a ‘unicorn factory’ — supporting many successful new companies through well-planned knowledge and innovation clusters,” he said.

Property Council state acting executive director Matthew Kandelaars.

Property Council state acting executive director Matthew Kandelaars said Melbourne was a wonderful city but it couldn’t afford to be complacent about its liveability, affordability and prosperity.

“As Melbourne grows, we need to boost opportunities for medium-density housing supply around transport corridors and jobs hubs in order to foster innovation and the formation of knowledge structures,” he said.

The report also had input from more than 100 policy makers, thinkers and business people across Australia.

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@JMasanauskas