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Canberra Today 15°/17° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

A great place to live, at a price

CANBERRA has been rated Australia’s second most liveable city by its own residents, just behind Adelaide.

The Property Council of Australia has released the latest results from “My City: The People’s Verdict”, a national poll that ranks Australian cities using a “liveability index”, based on the views of their residents across 17 criteria.

The top two positions have remained unchanged from the last two surveys, although the gap between Canberra and Adelaide has narrowed slightly from last year, with our total liveability score now at 63.4 and the South Australian capital on 63.6.

Of those surveyed by Auspoll on behalf of the Property Council, 72 per cent of Canberra residents agree their city has a good road network and minimal traffic congestion, 73 per cent see it as safe place for people and property, and 78 per cent agree it is clean, unpolluted and well-maintained.

The national capital topped the list for having a diverse range of people who get along well, with 65 per cent of locals in agreement, and was the best of a bad bunch on having a good approach to climate change and environmental sustainability, with 49 per cent in agreement.

But according to Canberrans, the good life comes at a price in their town; only 30 per cent agree that “having a good standard of living” is affordable, and only 25 per cent agree there is a good range of high quality, affordable housing.

Just 38 per cent think the city has a good public transport service and perhaps unsurprisingly, the results were 50-50 when it came to having a good climate.

Catherine Carter, the Property Council’s ACT executive director, points out that Canberra residents believe the ACT Government is doing a poor job of making housing more affordable, supplying infrastructure to keep up with demand and setting a fair level of taxation when people buy or sell properties.

“Importantly for policy makers, the research also shows that Canberra’s residents were more likely to support, rather than oppose, a series of housing developments to support population growth,” Ms Carter says.

“This includes a high level of support for the establishment of new neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the city, the conversion of existing sites to apartments and townhouses, and support for more medium density housing in middle and outer suburbs.”

The Property Council’s “My City: The People’s Verdict” report is available at www.propertyoz.com.au/mycity.

 

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