{"id":73142,"date":"2026-08-16T13:01:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T13:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73142\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T13:01:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T13:01:30","slug":"city-of-melbourne-report-reveals-whats-really-hitting-cbd-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73142\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Melbourne report reveals what\u2019s really hitting CBD growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report from the City of Melbourne has blamed \u201cnew and increased\u201d property taxes and \u201cgovernment intervention in workplace arrangements\u201d for higher than expected office vacancies.<\/p>\n

Town Hall\u2019s \u201cThe Melbourne Advantage\u201d program released its first report this week, as part of a council effort to track its progress towards 2030 economic goals.<\/p>\n

It revealed that while the city\u2019s economy was growing, office and shopfront vacancies <\/a>were still hampering Melbourne\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n

Shopfront vacancies were completely off track for a goal of below 5 per cent by 2030, instead growing to 6.7 per cent in the 2025\/26 financial year.<\/p>\n

The report explained this away as due to \u201cnew and long-awaited premium stock coming onto the retail property market, including Melbourne Walk adjacent to Mecca Bourke Street<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n

At the same time office vacancies were still well above the 2030 target of below 15 per cent, instead at 17.94 per cent in 2025\/26.<\/p>\n

While a similar explanation was offered of an influx of \u201cnew, high-quality supply\u201d, the council also found the Victorian government\u2019s tax settings were pushing developers and tenants out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Melbourne office market is also cautious due to new and increased property taxes eroding confidence and pushing domestic and global investors to look elsewhere,\u201d the report found.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs well as growing uncertainty around proposed government intervention in workplace arrangements to mandate the right to work from home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lord Mayor Nick Reece <\/a>would \u201ccontinue to advocate for the conditions\u201d that would boost Melbourne\u2019s economy, in line with the report\u2019s goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cCosts that discourage investment like foreign buyer taxes and surcharges should be eased in these zones,\u201d Mr Reece said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urgently need to make Melbourne competitive \u2013 more than ever investors can easily choose Sydney, Brisbane or Singapore instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Herald Sun reported last week that there was enough empty space to accommodate almost 83,000 staff in the CBD, as the Property Council warned Melbourne\u2019s office recovery was in a fragile state.<\/p>\n

The report also showed that the city\u2019s official ranking for the \u201cstudent experience\u201d has plummeted from second in the world to sixth.<\/p>\n

The council report lays the blame squarely on aggressive federal government policy shifts that have made Australia more expensive for international students.<\/p>\n

On July 1, the federal government hiked the non-refundable student visa application fee by 20 per cent to $2500.<\/p>\n

Graduates wishing to stay and work in Victoria faced a Temporary Graduate Visa fee starting at $5750.<\/p>\n

The council report warned the financial barriers were already \u201cdiscouraging talented graduates\u201d in critical skill-shortage sectors and will directly trigger \u201clower spending on accommodation, hospitality, retail, transport and other local services\u201d across the city.<\/p>\n

Newly minted premier Ben Carroll has hit the brakes on his predecessor Jacinta Allan\u2019s work-from-home legislation<\/a>, signalling he would work with business to amend the reforms, while outright delaying implementation of the change until 2027.<\/p>\n

While the office vacancies and student experience were off track, 14 of the Melbourne Advantage program\u2019s 16 goals were heading in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new report from the City of Melbourne has blamed \u201cnew and increased\u201d property taxes and \u201cgovernment intervention…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[104020,42632,103980,104013,83165,104030,104002,104032,104004,103981,83160,41360,103982,9799,103997,18422,103989,104000,104022,103991,43176,66114,104023,103986,6541,104012,83214,53585,23,104024,104016,103992,323,36917,4546,15710,8117,104017,104021,103990,83223,104007,104031,103978,104033,104025,104006,104003,79111,52,311,77320,104014,10207,5957,103999,104034,1646,32258,37392,31392,102470,104028,104019,260,104011,104015,104027,103976,90861,1012,103993,103985,104026,103998,3121,103987,1002,104008,103995,104005,247,103979,46124,103988,104035,48390,43113,46872,46325,36676,103994,41022,38322,14897,104010,5606,103996,104029,104001,103984,55871,36946,103983,41551,70015,45688,67950,46716,37120,104009,38964,425,33333,104018,68,103977],"class_list":["post-73142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-s-16-goals","tag-s-economy","tag-s-goals","tag-s-growth-shopfront-vacancies","tag-s-office-recovery","tag-s-official-ranking","tag-s-tax-settings","tag-s-work-from-home-legislation","tag-2500-graduates","tag-5750-the-council-report","tag-000-staff","tag-41360","tag-17-94","tag-9799","tag-2025-26-while","tag-18422","tag-2030-economic-goals-it","tag-6-7","tag-a-council-effort","tag-a-fragile-state-the-report","tag-a-goal","tag-a-new-report","tag-a-similar-explanation","tag-a-temporary-graduate-visa-fee","tag-accommodation","tag-aggressive-federal-government-policy-shifts","tag-almost-83","tag-an-influx","tag-australia","tag-below-15","tag-below-5","tag-brisbane-or-singapore","tag-business","tag-cent","tag-city","tag-confidence","tag-costs","tag-critical-skill-shortage-sectors","tag-developers-and-tenants","tag-domestic-and-global-investors","tag-enough-empty-space","tag-foreign-buyer-taxes-and-surcharges","tag-government-intervention","tag-government-taxes","tag-growing-uncertainty","tag-high-quality-supply","tag-higher-than-expected-cbd-office-vacancies","tag-higher-than-expected-office-vacancies","tag-his-predecessor","tag-home","tag-hospitality","tag-implementation","tag-international-students-on","tag-investment","tag-investors","tag-its-first-report","tag-its-progress","tag-jacinta-allan","tag-july-1","tag-last-week","tag-line","tag-lord-mayor-nick-reece","tag-lower-spending","tag-mecca-bourke-street","tag-melbourne","tag-melbourne-competitive","tag-melbourne-report","tag-melbourne-walk","tag-minted-premier-ben-carroll","tag-mr-reece","tag-new","tag-new-and-increased-property-taxes","tag-new-and-long-awaited-premium-stock","tag-office-and-shopfront-vacancies","tag-office-vacancies","tag-part","tag-proposed-government-intervention","tag-retail","tag-sixth-the-council-report","tag-soaring-cbd-office-vacancies","tag-soaring-office-vacancies","tag-sydney","tag-talented-graduates","tag-the-report","tag-the-2025-26-financial-year-the-report","tag-the-2030-target","tag-the-blame","tag-the-brakes","tag-the-cbd","tag-the-change","tag-the-city","tag-the-city-newly","tag-the-conditions","tag-the-council","tag-the-federal-government","tag-the-financial-barriers","tag-the-herald-sun","tag-the-melbourne-advantage-program","tag-the-melbourne-office-market","tag-the-non-refundable-student-visa-application-fee","tag-the-office-vacancies-and-student-experience","tag-the-property-council","tag-the-reforms","tag-the-retail-property-market","tag-the-right","tag-the-right-direction","tag-the-same-time","tag-the-student-experience","tag-the-victorian-government","tag-the-world","tag-these-zones","tag-this-week","tag-town-hall","tag-track","tag-transport-and-other-local-services","tag-victoria","tag-workplace-arrangements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp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