Col Myers | Small Myers Hughes Lawyers
We all are aware that Governments (both State and local) are pushing people into high-rise living. Population growth in the cities means that more and more high-rise developments are inevitable.
I recently came across interesting statistics relating to strata, which was prepared by the City Futures Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.
These statistics are a snapshot from around the middle of 2015, and as the population of Australia has grown by over a million people since then it’s reasonable to assume that some of these figures may have grown significantly since then.
What I found surprising at first about the statistics is the large percentage of the population that live in apartments in NSW, almost one in every six people in NSW and nearly double the percentage of Victorians and well above the Australia wide percentage.
These numbers provide a variety of other interesting observations and comparisons, such as the number of people that were living in apartments in NSW was equal to 4.76% of the total Australian population, and equal to 67.44% of the population of South Australia.
Statistics below relating to strata, which was prepared by the City Futures Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.
| Australia wide – Percentage of population living in apartments | Number of Apartment Residents | Total Residents in Australia |
| 9% | 2,200,793 | 23,717,418 |
| NSW – Percentage of population living in apartments | Number of Apartment Residents | Total Residents in NSW |
| 15% | 1,129,464 | 7,564,945 |
| VIC – Percentage of population living in apartments | Number of Apartment Residents | Total Residents in VIC |
| 8% | 471,317 | 5,946,959 |
| QLD – Percentage of population living in apartments | Number of Apartment Residents | Total Residents in QLD |
| 7% | 357,947 | 4,844,547 |
| WA – Percentage of population living in apartments | Number of Apartment Residents | Total Residents in WA |
| 4% | 90,795 | 2,517,851 |
| SA – Percentage of population living in apartments | Number of Apartment Residents | Total Residents in SA |
| 4% | 69,063 | 1,674,787 |
To give further context to the numbers above:
• The number of people living in apartments in Queensland was more than the entire population of the Sunshine Coast.
• The number of people living in apartments in WA was three times the population of Busselton.
• The number of people living in apartments in Victoria was almost five times the population of Ballarat.
• The number of people living in apartments in SA was more than double the population of Mount Gambier.
• The number of people living in apartments in NSW was almost four times the population of Wollongong.
On further considering the NSW figure it appears to reflect the fact that a large portion of the NSW population lives in the vicinity of Sydney and this of course has only been possible through the density achieved with strata living arrangements.
My personal observation of a growing number of strata developments in Melbourne and the continued property price and population growth in Melbourne over recent years leads me to believe that the percentage of Victorians living in apartments will have significantly increased since 2015. This is over and above what I suspect will be a significant increase across the board as more and more people are born in or move to the major cities of Australia.
My takeaway message from these statistics is that if you ever wondered where the future lies, jump into anything strata related now!
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Disclaimer – This article is provided for information purposes only and should not be regarded as legal advice.