"Socially Disadvantaged" Flocking To The 'Burbs: New Report

The rising cost of housing is pushing the socially disadvantaged towards the urban fringes of Australia’s cities, according to a new report.

The Federal Government’s

State of Australian Cities Report 2014-2015 paints a portrait of a nation that is divided between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ - with the socially disadvantaged living in the sprawling outer suburbs on the urban fringes with limited infrastructure and those with higher incomes living in inner city areas with access to better services, infrastructure and jobs.

According to the report, research by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) found that “clusters of social disadvantage” were increasingly pushed towards city peripheries between 2001-2011, as large price premiums were increasingly being paid for homes within close proximity to the CBDs of Australia’s major cities.

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“Australia’s cities are now increasingly characterised by the significant spatial divide between areas of highly productive jobs and the areas of population based services, reflected through the price premiums associated with houses that have better access to the city centre,” the report said.

The below map demonstrates the proportion of homes that were deemed affordable by low to moderate purchasers in Melbourne in 1981 and 2006.  In 1981, most of Melbourne was considered affordable by low to moderate purchasers, while in 2006, only a few suburbs on the outer fringe were considered affordable.