Everybody wants house prices down. The only way we can get there is by building more homes.
YIMBY Melbourne
@yimby.melbourne
People-led. Grassroots. For housing abundance.
"The fact that most of the residential land in our cities is locked up under highly restricted zoning makes sense of why we can't build the homes we need." The Australian Zoning Atlas is out now (see the link below)!
More Melburnians deserve the choice to live close to transport, jobs and the city. That's exactly what the Activity Centres Program delivers.
BREAKING: Wealthy Bayside Council is taking the Victorian Government to the Supreme Court to block upzoning, paving the way for a broader legal challenge. NIMBYs would rather burn hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers than let young people live in their neighbourhood.
Victoria’s planning reforms are working. There's been nearly a 50% increase in Townhouse permits since last year. Turns out it's not complicated: make building easier, and the homes follow.
EVENT: Our very own Katie Roberts-Hull will be representing us at a lively discussion about what's causing the housing crisis and how to fix it! Join us @ Table Scraps: Housing, who gets to belong? Tuesday, June 2nd
Grattan Institute’s new report shows that letting Australian homebuyers choose the car-parking they need will: → make housing cheaper, → get more homes built faster, and → create more walkable cities.
Our own Jonathan O'Brien represented Abundant Housing Network Australia at the recent Commonwealth Inquiry into Productivity. Here he is talking about why our cities are the engines of Australia's economy:
Rents fell in Austin when they built more homes. Good things are possible when you do planning reform 🏗️
Jonathan O’Brien, Lead Organiser for YIMBY Melbourne, accused [the NIMBYs] of being “tone-deaf”, saying the proposal appeared to be compliant, and the apartments would get built. “Grandstanding against common-sense inner-city housing is just a really embarrassing look in 2026”
“Old people don’t need places to live” say local NIMBYs. Plans to build a mid-rise retirement village on the site of an abandoned building received 51 formal objections in Vermont.
Falling house prices? That sounds like a good housing market to me...
Parliamentary inquiry into community consultation practices finds that local government ‘opt-in’ consultation is biased against renters and the young →
A massive victory in the war against upper-level setbacks! The Mid-Rise Code offers greater housing certainty for Melburnians. It also winds back one of the most damaging and poorly evidenced planning controls: upper-level setbacks.
Huge thanks to everyone who made our last event such a success. We heard from Brendan Coates and Alain Bertaud, followed by a panel joined by Jonathan O'Brien and Matthew Bowes (subbing in for Brendan).
TONIGHT 👇 Join Alain Bertaud (author of Order without Design) and Brendan Coates (Grattan Institute) to discuss how to make Australian cities work better for everyone. [Link to tickets in next tweet]
Are cities just giant labour markets? Alain Bertaud argues that cities should be designed by millions of individual trade-offs, not a single planner's estimated "average".
💯 bang on the money. Younger Australians are facing worse and worse trade-offs in pursuit of housing affordability. To reverse intergenerational inequality, Governments must make our major cities accessible again.
Last week, our lead organiser, Jonathan O'Brien, was on A Current Affair. He argued that we should not empower a loud minority to block new homes being built where people want to live.
PRESS RELEASE → Whilst YIMBY Melbourne applauds the Coalition’s more positive housing vision, their plans leave too much to be desired.
[Hosted by our Lead Organiser — Jonathan O'Brien] Australia gives billions of dollars to charity each year. But the rules governing where those dollars can go are outdated and often misaligned with impact. Is the DGR system the biggest handbrake on Aussie charity? 👇
Help shape the future of Melbourne’s Activity Centres! Community Reference Groups (CRGs) are being formed right now to provide local feedback to the upzoning plans. If we want walkable, transit-oriented, and affordable neighbourhoods, we need YIMBYs in the room!
🚨 We're close to selling out again! Get your ticket now! Join Alain Bertaud (author of Order without Design) and Brendan Coates (Grattan Institute) to discuss how to make Australian cities work better for everyone. [Link to tickets in next tweet]
The final draft plans for Melbourne’s Activity Centre Program show a promising vision for housing where people want to live. But YIMBY Melbourne warns that restrictive minimum lot size rules could leave new homes on the drawing board.
🚨 Due to selling out, we’ve had to move to a larger venue! To celebrate the next 10 tickets will be sold at a discounted early bird price. Get them before they sell out!
One site, two permits, two radically different reactions. NIMBYs overwhelmingly weaponise the planning system against social housing. It's time to stop listening to NIMBYs and build more homes.
ANNOUNCEMENT → Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities — the Australian Tour Join Alain Bertaud (author of Order without Design) and Brendan Coates (Grattan Institute) to discuss how to make Australian cities work better for everyone. [Link to tickets in next tweet]
We do not build enough homes where people want to live. Why? Because our urban planning systems make it impossible. We need our planning system to say 'yes', not 'no'.
