Australia's greyfields: overlooked middle suburbs offer new residential solutions

Australia's population is projected to reach more than 35 million people by mid-century, according to ABS and Treasury forecasts. Over 70 per cent of this growth will be in our capital cities. Already, this acceleration is exerting huge pressure on Australia's major capital cities and their housing markets. Designed to achieve more compact urban development, metropolitan planning strategies for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane require that more than half of new and future housing be constructed in established, middle-ring suburbs with the remainder in traditional outer 'greenfields'. These strategies are coupled with other sustainable city objectives related to reducing resource use (energy and water consumption, car-based travel, housing space etc) and greenhouse gas emissions. However, these plans are failing. This failure is largely due to an inability by the government, development industry and local communities to tackle the following solution---the creation of a practical and replicable model to regenerate Australia's 'greyfield' suburbs.