Population booms suburban outskirts are creating new housing hotspots

Surging population growth in the suburban outskirts of Sydney and Melbourne has made them hotbeds of construction activity at a time when housing building struggles.

Building approvals remain near record lows. Picture: Getty Images

Surging population growth in the suburban outskirts of Sydney and Melbourne has made them hotbeds of construction activity at a time when home building is struggling to break ground.

The Housing Industry Association’s latest annual Population and Residential Building Hotspots Report has named the neighbouring northwest Sydney suburbs of Box Hill and Nelson as the nation’s hottest for home construction, narrowly beating out Fraser Rise and Plumpton in Melbourne’s west.

Victorian locations made up 11 spots on the Top 20 list, many of them in the growing outer suburbs of Melbourne, including ­Tamelt and Rockbank. NSW had four home-building hotspots, encompassing Sydney’s Marsden Park and Austral, while Queensland’s three were all in the state’s southeast. Western Australia and South Australia recorded one appearance each.

Hotspots are considered as areas where population growth eclipses the national rate and building work is more than $200m.

HIA economist Maurice Tapang said the list was a testament to the importance of new master planned housing communities in supporting the growth of cities as migration continues to run high.

“Australia’s population continued to rebound well into September 2023, as overseas migration continues to backfill for the near zero growth during the pandemic,” Mr Tapang said.

“The latest population data suggests that NSW is experiencing an exodus of residents to interstate destinations. What has been keeping its population figures growing are the inflow of overseas migrants.

“The drivers of housing demand are population and economic growth. Supporting pop­u­lation growth will require supply­ing adequate homes, which will entail providing the necessary infrastructure and land supply to grow our cities.”

Building approvals have been running at near record lows for months, despite the federal government’s commitment to delivering 1.2 million new dwellings over the next five years.

Major housing developers have condemned high infrastructure fees that have added tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a new house.

Developer AVJennings this week pulled out of a 3500 lot project north of Brisbane, citing rising costs.

It coincides with record levels of migration, with Australia welcoming more than one million overseas migrants in the past two years.

PropTrack data has revealed searches for Australian property on Realestate.com.au were 20 per cent above the five-year average through April, with Britain the biggest contributor.

PropTrack senior economist Eleanor Creagh said it was no surprise overseas searches had remained near record highs.

“The PropTrack Home Price Index shows national home ­prices have cycled through 16 months of consecutive growth, with stable market conditions perhaps adding to interest from overseas buyers alongside the weaker Australian dollar,” Ms Creagh said.