By Rachael Dexter and Daile Cross
Australians believe their ideal neighbourhood is green, celebrates the uniqueness of its natural environment, is well maintained, and offers shops and services within walking distance of homes.
The consultants behind the 2023 Australian Liveability Census published on Thursday surveyed more than 26,000 Australians who were asked to score their local area on 50 different attributes.
They included ease of moving around their suburbs, quality of local shops and open space, things to do at night and how socially connected they felt.
Newer suburbs on the urban fringe were not as liveable as medium density inner-city areas.Credit: Ross Swanborough
Each area was allocated a rating out of 100. PlaceScore says its methodology has been peer-reviewed by Macquarie University.
And the winner was Perth inner-city suburban area Subiaco.
Australia’s most livable local government areas
- Subiaco (WA)
- Lane Cove (NSW)
- Hunters Hill (NSW)
- Boroondara (VIC)
- Surf Coast (VIC)
- Vincent (WA)
- North Sydney (NSW)
- Cambridge (WA)
- Port Phillip (VIC)
- Noosa (QLD)
Source: Place Score
Three West Australian local government areas made the national top 10 list, with Subiaco at number one, Vincent at number six and Cambridge coming in eighth.
The report found that in 2023 people placed an increased value on greener and more walkable local neighbourhoods that meet day to day needs.
Younger people were looking for things to do in the evening, employment opportunities, the range of rent and house prices and connectivity.
Ease of driving and parking was 5 per cent more important to people than in 2021, at 31 out of the 50 liveability values.
The best performing areas tended to be older, more established, with retail, mature tree canopy and proximity to high-quality amenities.
Some of the country’s fastest growing local government areas were the poorest performers on the scale, with the report finding the outer ring of suburbia where infrastructure was playing catch up to growth dropping in livability.
The survey also found that the top 10 densest LGAs across the country on average experienced 8 per cent better liveability than the national average.
WA Premier Roger Cook said he was not surprised Subiaco ranked so highly, since the area had great cafés, restaurants and enough density to create a vibrant community.
He wanted to see more opportunities for people to live close to the city in communities like Subiaco.
Kylie Legge, chief executive of Place Score and an urban planner, said the worst-performing areas were outer suburban areas with rapidly growing greenfield developments and often lagging infrastructure.
“That is always concerning for us when we see an area where the people themselves are really unsatisfied with what their neighbourhoods are actually providing for them,” Legge said.
“It also happens to be some of the fastest-growing areas where a huge proportion of housing is planned. So there’s a real disconnect there between putting as many lives as possible in the place that is currently the most unlivable.”
Her firm’s research, she argued, showed it was clear that it was not the highest skyscraper-dominated areas nor sprawling, car-dependent greenfield developments where people were most content but somewhere in between; neighbourhoods with multiple local centres, parks, green streets and a mix of apartment buildings from three to 12 storeys, terraces, townhouses and some larger stand-alone homes, too.
“Everything they’re asking for us is all good stuff – there’s nothing crazy. We want green, walkable, compact and well-maintained neighbourhoods,” she said.
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