ABSTRACT
Australian cities are facing substantial pressures from population growth, migration, housing affordability and transport congestion. Compact city policies in the form of high-density multi-unit housing and residential intensification have been introduced over several decades by state planning authorities in response to the perceived problems further complicated by low-density urban sprawl. As cities intensify, more people move to live in apartments. This has had a significant influence on urban housing markets in recent decades. Building on Randolph and Tice’s (2013) study, this chapter applies and extends their analytical tool for understanding the demand drivers of the higher density housing market in three major Australian cities, namely Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Accordingly, comparisons between socio-economic characteristics of residents in flats and apartments of the above-mentioned cities were undertaken. A spatial data infrastructure was designed and the results were stored in UNSW’s City Futures’ online portal called CityData. Results are discussed in terms of the outcomes of housing intensification. The outputs provide a graphic illustration of the various sub-markets that predominate in the higher density housing markets in these three cities. The approach identifies the main sub-market groups that characterise the apartment market in the three cities in a way that allows the three-dimensional nature of higher density housing to be accommodated in a ‘traditional’ two-dimensional geography. It offers a useful tool to unpack the demand side drivers of housing markets using Census data and would provide a very valuable analytic approach for planners to better understand the housing outcomes of compact city policies.
