Adelaide continues to be rated as Australia’s most liveable city for a third year according to a new survey of residents’ views of their own city.
The Property Council of Australia today released the latest results from My City: The People’s Verdict – a national poll that tests views on the liveability of our cities.
The study – now in its third year – once again crowns Adelaide as Australia’s most liveable city, closely followed by Canberra.
Darwin was ranked by its residents as Australia’s worst city, with Sydney remaining just above Darwin to be in second-last place.
The biggest changes were in Newcastle and Hobart, whose liveability scores both rose dramatically, while Perth saw the largest decline, falling from fourth place to third last.
“This is the people’s verdict on their own city – a report card for governments on how liveable our cities are,” Property Council Chief Executive, Peter Verwer, said.
“Australians have given their verdict – they want more liveable cities and they know that the performance of our cities is critical for our future economic prosperity.
“Australians know what makes a city great and they continue to rate our cities poorly in housing affordability, environmental sustainability, congestion and public transport.
“These results should be a wake up call for governments to lift the performance of our cities.”
The My City: The People’s Verdict survey of 5,843 people in all capital cities, as well as Newcastle, Wollongong and, for the first time, Geelong was undertaken by Auspoll for the Property Council.
Respondents ranked the importance of 17 key attributes of cities and assessed their own city against these attributes. This produced a liveability score for each city.
Australians scored their cities highly on the following attributes:
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recreational outdoor environments (80% average city approval);
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natural environments (76% average city approval);
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school and educational facilities (72% average city approval); and
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vibrant cultural scene and good climate (68% each average city approval).
But Australians were unimpressed by their city’s performance in the following areas:
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providing quality affordable housing (37% average city approval).
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environmental sustainability and climate change (39% average city approval);
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public transport services (42% average city approval);
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roads and traffic congestion (42% average city approval);
The big wake up call is for governments, with residents giving a scathing assessment of their State/Territory Government’s performance on:
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making housing affordable,
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setting fair property taxes,
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supplying infrastructure to keep up with demand, and
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planning and managing urban growth.
The report also shows an overwhelming majority of Australians support Federal Government action to improve our cities, particularly in investing in major infrastructure and putting in place incentives and penalties to encourage State and Local Government to plan our cities better.
“In this federal election year, the onus is on the political parties to respond to the survey with policies to address the growing problems in our cities” Mr Verwer said.
“We need a nation-wide effort to boost the performance of our cities to meet the challenges of the future: population, housing, infrastructure and a strong economy.
YouTube: http://youtu.be/FDmKDtMuiUQ
Go to Propertyoz.com.au/mycity for full results