Empty nesters moving to cities
The great Aussie dream of owning a big house in the suburbs is looking shaky as empty-nest baby boomers as well as Generations X and Y take to city living in increasing numbers, according to consulting firm KPMG’s just released ‘Population Growth Report 2007’.
For the first time in the report’s 18-year history the number of people moving downtown is rivaling the number shifting to leading growth corridors in the suburbs.
“There is no greater measure of how Australian values have shifted in a single generation than in the numbers that track the rise of downtown living,” said the report’s author, Bernard Salt, a partner in KPMG’s Advisory practice.
“We are still enamoured with the beach and the seachange shift continues to grow strongly as evidenced by the Gold Coast’s relentless population boom, but the central core of our largest cities is emerging as a growth area that now competes with the outer suburbs and with parts of the beach as the preferred destination for Australians on the move,” he said.
“In the funkiest, hippest and most central parts of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane the number of new residents moving in each year now tops 7,000, 6,800 and 6,300 respectively and exceeds the numbers added to each city’s fastest growing suburbs,” Mr Salt stated.
