Bluestone Ward Key Findings:

Vacant land and housing in Bluestone Ward, City of Maribyrnong could see 1058 people living within 430 properties in the locality.
This would add 11.7% to the population in the municipality, greatly benefiting local business.
The extra supply of 430 properties to the market would limit if not reduce rampant property price inflation in the area.
Local, state and federal governments implicitly encourage such wastage with the tax system supporting speculative profiteering at the expense of productive land use.

A rising phenomenon sheds light on the housing affordability crisis. March 2007

It’s called vacant land. It can sit there all by itself whilst the world goes whizzing by it, with new houses being built and small business struggling to make ends meet. It looks innocent enough. Infact it is such a subtle part of the community that most don’t even see it. This meek little piece of the planet can outdo them all though, growing in value by triple the average wage increase.

What an amazing effort! Triple what the average wage grows and just one block making as much in lump sums as many small businesses do in a year. How does it do it? It sits back and waits for everyone else to work away, improving the schools and roads. Don’t worry, someone else’s taxes pay for it. It does nothing, but people flock to the area, wanting to live there, pushing its value higher and higher.

These were two clips that we entered in GetUp’s OzIn30Seconds film competition.

The short clips drew attention to the affordability and access issues faced by our generation. We hope these examples get your thoughts flowing. We have a few more clips in the pipeline.

Affordable Housing: We Demand Justice…

Land Supply Strangled by Speculators

Earthsharing Australia has released the first ‘I Want to Live Here’ Report, demonstrating the extent to which speculative vacancies are the hidden issue in the housing affordability debate.

The ‘I Want to Live Here’ report found that 1058 people could live on vacant sites within …