Here’s an important factor that will determine the price of your property in the future

How did you get to work today?

If you’re like the majority of Australian you drove yourself to work, and if not, you went on public transport. 

It is said that as cities get bigger, particularly over 5 million people (Sydney already has over 5.5 million people and Melbourne ‘s population has topped the 5 million mark) it becomes harder to get around them, meaning they tend to become less “liveable.”

Just look at all the big overseas cities and you’ll find that properties with a high “walk score” increase in value more.

Walking distance to transport, shops and the café lifestyle is one the strongest trends attracting buyers and tenants.

Similarly, as our cities grow, proximity to public transport is going to become more and more important in determining property price growth. 

The following chart complied from the latest census data by the demographers at id.com.au shows that on census day 2016, 61.5% of people drove themselves to work in their own car.

What it doesn’t show is how much longer that commute is today than it was a decade ago, particularly in Melbourne and Sydney.

This is partly because of increased traffic congestion, but also because much of our population growth has been in the new outer suburbs, while most of the higher paying jobs are still in the economic hubs close to the centre of our cities.

As you can see from the following graph from id.com.au more and more of us are using a car to drive to work

More of us use public transport

And as our roads became congested more and more of us will have resorted to using public transport, particularly trains.

The latest census data revealed that the number of people using the train to get to work increased by 22% from 6.3% to 7.2% over the last 4 years. 

Not surprisingly Melbourne and Sydney combined made up 97% of this increase in train use.

Sydney added 61% (84,000) of the total Australian increase in train users train and today 16.2% of Sydneysiders take a train to work.

In Melbourne 11.5% of all trips to work were by train.

The census also showed that in the last 10 years, Melbourne had close to a 70% increase in train users and about 50% more tram users.

Interestingly the percentage of people using Public Transport barely changed over the last decade in other capital cities. This will probably change over time as these cities become more populous.

The bottom line: 

As our cities grow and the commute to work by car becomes more arduous, people will pay a premium to live closer to the CBD — trading space (big back yards) for place (living in convenient locations).

They will prefer to trade their backyards for balconies and courtyards rather than spending hours travelling to and from work.

At the same time others will pay a premium to be close to (but not too close to) public transport, particularly in our 2 big capital cities — Melbourne and Sydney.

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About Michael Yardney Michael is a director of Metropole Property Strategists who help their clients grow, protect and pass on their wealth through independent, unbiased property advice and advocacy. He's once again been voted Australia's leading property investment adviser and one of Australia's 50 most influential Thought Leaders. His opinions are regularly featured in the media.