Southbank properties left high and dry
Nobody home: Almost 12,700 residential properties in Melbourne appear unoccupied, with Southbank the top area for vacancies.
Southbank residents either don’t take showers or many apartments are empty most of the year.
A study has found more than 64,000 residential properties in Melbourne are rarely used and almost 12,700 appear unoccupied, with Southbank the top area for vacancies.
The findings are based on an analysis of water use commissioned by Prosper Australia, a group seeking tax changes to improve the efficiency of land use.
The Speculative Vacancies in Melbourne report, now in its sixth year, looked at water use data from Melbourne’s big water retailers.
It found “64,465 properties were potentially unused over the study period, having consumed less than 50 litres of water a day, and 12,691 properties did not use any water, and were demonstrably unoccupied”.
Average household water consumption in Melbourne is estimated at 419 litres a day.
The analysis of 1.4 million residential properties found 4.4 per cent were potentially unused or seldom used.
Of the 4169 properties examined in Southbank, 328 used no water and 940 used fewer than 50 litres a day, making it the highest property vacancy rate in percentage terms in the city.
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