Prosper Australia’s latest Speculative Vacancies data update reveals a 16% rise – to 31,890 – in totally empty homes in Melbourne over the past year. This rise in empty dwellings has undermined the benefit from new housing supply coming online.
Including a further 69,055 underused homes, the total climbs to 100,945. This figure speaks to a significant misallocation of resources that we can’t simply build our way out of.
“Melbourne added enough totally empty homes last year to effectively wipe out one in every nine new dwellings”, said Prosper Australia’s Advocacy Director, Rayna Fahey, today. “The efforts of hardworking tradies and new-build investors, who are trying to boost the supply of homes, are being undermined by tens of thousands of existing properties left empty across the city.”
“Empty homes are like pipes clogged with debris: the system has capacity, but nothing flows to those who need it. For the 24,000 homeless Melbournians, this wastage only represents wasted opportunity.”
“Housing vacancy is a symptom of a wider problem of speculation in the housing market. We clearly need to build more homes. But if new builds continue to push up against the obstacle of empty homes, we need to understand why.”
“Housing ministers across the country must obtain quality data to get a good picture of the level of empty and underused housing in their jurisdictions. Or they are continuing to ignore a problem which most certainly exists.”
