A ring of suburbs within a 15-kilometre radius of Brisbane is experiencing the highest levels of gentrification, research has found.
The University of Queensland research shows suburbs in these three cities seem to be either gentrified or rapidly gentrifying, while the inner-city suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane—now typically affluent areas—are not seeing a change.
Largely, gentrification is the changing character of a neighbourhood through the influx of wealthier residents and businesses into once lower-income areas.
It is one of the significant changes to occur in Australian cities—and across the world— where property values are pushed up in inner and middle-ring suburbs.
UQ senior lecturer in urban planning Dr Dorina Pojani says the findings are surprising, contradicting earlier urban geography theories placing gentrification as an “inner-city phenomenon”.
“Instead, the highest levels of urban renewal are occurring within a band located five-to-15 kilometres from the cities’ central business districts,” Pojani said.
Gentrification in Brisbane suburbs
Pojani says the findings challenge anti-gentrification sentiments which in all three cities originate from inner-city suburbs.
“It’s clear that community backlash has not stemmed from poor and vulnerable groups fearing displacement,” she said.
“Rather, it may be considered as a manifestation of the NIMBY— Not In My Back Yard—syndrome, promulgated by local homeowners [who were] once themselves gentrifiers.
“It may be the case that inner-city communities react to more visible developments in the urban core, which take the form of high-rise, luxury housing and commerce,” Pojani said.
“Resistance to inner-city redevelopment may also be a reaction to Australia’s liberal approaches to city planning, which have enabled private developers to build with minimal community participation.”
The research included demographic metrics such as increasing household incomes, education, home-ownership and white-collar occupations as well as decreasing age and growing population density from 2006 to 2016.
The information was then combined with data from the Australian census, Google Maps and local council data repositories.
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