The housing impacts of neighbourhood change: gentrification, affordability and displacement

Summary

This project examined how gentrification (the move of high-income households to low-rent/cost neighbourhoods) had impacted on the supply of affordable housing in these areas in Sydney and Melbourne. The project addressed three research questions: how much gentrification has taken place over the last decade; what are the social and economic costs to communities and to low income households of this gentrification; and what are the direct policy implications of gentrification to state housing and Federal government agencies?

Project Number: 40548
Research Theme: Housing_affordability
Project Leader: Atkinson, Rowland
Funding Year: 2008
Research Centre: Southern

Research & Policy Bulletin

Issue 137: Gentrification and displacement: the household impacts of neighbourhood change

The migration of affluent households into middle and lower-income neighbourhoods in Melbourne and Sydney has dislocated significant numbers of households over the past decade. Interviews with those displaced highlight significant financial and psychological difficulties in maintaining a foothold in rental accommodation.

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