On a recent trip to Canberra I stayed in the suburb of Belconnen. I hadn't been there for many years and I was struck by the number of high rise apartment buildings around the town centre. High rise development is a relatively new phenomenon in Canberra but it is guided by the 2018 ACT Planning Strategy. The Census offers some insights into how high rise development has increased over the years and where these dwellings are located. Read on to find out more.
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| High rise apartments in Belconnen (2022) |
Dwelling structure is the relevant Census variable for this analysis and essentially describes the type of dwelling. This can be a separate house, apartment building, villa unit or even a caravan or houseboat. Apartment buildings are classified by the number of floors and this enables dwellings to be more easily labelled as medium or high rise. Such has been the growth of very large apartment buildings in Australian cities that the ABS introduced a new category in the 2021 Census to separate buildings of nine or more storeys. The analysis in this blog defines high density as apartments in a three or more storey block, so it includes this new "super dense" category.
Dwelling density in Australia's cities
The 2021 Census showed that there are almost 1.2 million high density dwellings in Australia. This represents 11% of the dwelling stock, and is an increase of one-third on the 2016 figure. By way of comparison, the total dwelling stock increased by 9.3% over the same period.
Sydney has the highest proportion of high density dwellings (27.1%), followed by Canberra (17.4%) and Darwin (17.2%). At the other end of the scale, Hobart had the lowest proportion (2.0%).
Dwelling types in Canberra
The chart below shows how dwelling types have changed in Canberra between 2011 and 2021. Separate houses are the main type of dwelling, and increased in number by 11,300 over the ten years. However, their share of dwellings declined from 70.7% to 60.9%. This was due to a more rapid increase in medium and high density dwellings. Medium density dwellings increased by a similar number between 2011 and 2021 (11,280), and they comprised 21.4% of dwellings in 2021.
High density dwellings more than doubled in number between 2011 and 2021. There were 13,490 high density dwellings in 2011, comprising 9.3% of the dwelling stock. By 2021 the equivalent figures were 32,450 and 17.4%. This has contributed to a rapidly changing skyline in parts of Canberra.
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| High rise apartments in Kingston (2021) |
High rise dwellings in Canberra are spatially concentrated. There are nine SA2s where at least half the dwelling stock is high rise. This demonstrates just how much the skyline of Canberra has changed, yet as mentioned above, separate houses remain the main dwelling type. In fact, more than half of the SA2s in Canberra do not have any high rise dwellings - noting however that there are many that have small or minimal populations.
The map below confirms this spatial concentration. Central parts of Canberra, particularly the SA2s of Civic and Kingston, have very high proportions of high density dwellings. In general, there is some correlation between the town centres, and higher proportions of high density dwellings. This is in line with the urban intensification areas identified in the 2018 ACT Planning Strategy. For instance, 71.6% of dwellings in Belconnen are high density, as are 64.9% in Philip, which covers Woden Town Centre. Aside from these areas, Gungahlin in the north and Greenway in the south (which includes Tuggeranong) have notably high proportions of high density dwellings (47.1% and 58.4% respectively).
The spatial concentration of high density dwellings in Canberra continues a strong history of strategic planning in the city and is in alignment with the goals of the metropolitan strategy, the 2018 ACT Planning Strategy. The strategy seeks to locate 70% of new dwellings within the existing urban footprint, and to concentrate higher densities around town centres. Concentrating high density dwellings in this manner not only restrains urban sprawl, but it promotes walkability because people live close to services. The high rise apartments in Belconnen are close to shops, open space and employment - including of course the government agency that provides the statistics for many of my blogs!
Summary
Dwelling densities in Australian cities are increasing. High density dwellings, defined as those in apartment blocks of three storeys or more, number more 1.2 million across the country and comprise 11% of the dwelling stock. Most dwellings in Canberra are low density separate houses, but this analysis shows that there are distinct concentrations of high density dwellings. 17% of Canberra's dwelling stock is high density. There are nine SA2s where more than half the dwelling stock is classified as high density, headed by Civic and Kingston. It is likely that the number of high density dwellings will continue to increase in line with the metropolitan planning strategy.
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