Australian government moves to cap city growth

Property developers and agents are in uproar over Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's plans to cap population growth in the country's major cities. Developers' association Urban Taskforce Australia has submitted a study to the government's sustainable population department that indicates property prices in Sydney alone could fall 18 percent over the next 10 years is plans go ahead.

Both Sustainable Population Minister Tony Burke and Prime Minister Gillard made comments late last year that some of the nation's sprawling capital cities had reached their "carrying capacity". "I think if you talk to the people of western Sydney or western Melbourne or the Gold Coast growth corridor in Queensland, people would look at you and say, 'Where would all these [extra] people go?'"

Urban Taskforce chief Aaron Gladiel stood by his group's report, stating it was a factual representation of the consequences for the property industry despite reports of a scare campaign. "We don't put our name to stuff we don't think is robust", he said. "If the government were to take that step of capping a city's population, I don't think any reasonable person can deny these are the sort of consequences we will face."

Source: Sydney Morning Herald