Publications | SGS Economics & Planning

Australia’s rental crisis reaches new heights: 2024 Rental Affordability Index

Insights For Purpose Housing

The ability for local governments to fund infrastructure and services

Insights Community Infrastructure

Community Benefit Sharing: A Path to Equitable Development

Insights Energy

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SGS Economics and Planning Tara Emilythumbnail

SGS welcomes two new partners: Tara Callinan and Emily Hobbs

What's New

We are extremely proud to be an employee-owned business and to have an outstanding group of individuals in the SGS partner group. Partners are the major investors in the business and they set out their expectations for returns across community impact, culture and financial returns in the SGS Partner Charter. It's wonderful to see our employee-owned model growing...

SGS Economics and Planning Popgrowth

New data demonstrates how Australia’s population growth is responding to the pandemic

Insights

Employment, Housing

Over the last few decades, Australia has seen population growth largely concentrated in and around a few major capital cities, as people were attracted to increasing economic and service opportunities. This has placed huge pressure on these cities to keep up with growth and provide adequate infrastructure and services for the new residents.

SGS Economics and Planning Marcus Spiller Affordable Housing

Social and affordable housing contributions: Developers must play their part in social housing

Insights

Housing

Social and affordable housing should be seen as essential infrastructure for successful communities and developers have an important role to play. When the now abandoned Social and Affordable Housing Contribution was announced in Victoria, respected property players who in other forums had freely acknowledged that development contributions for social housing had a part to play went to ground. Instead, we heard the party line from the peaks that social housing is a community-wide problem demanding a community-wide response and not an opportunistic tax on those who build the houses we need.

Sydney Morning Herald article featuring Ellen Witte

‘Gut-wrenching’: Hunt for affordable home couldn’t outrun climate change

Media

Out-priced city dwellers have been moving to the regions but, in doing so, these homeowners have exposed themselves to a different problem – the cost of increased climate change risks. Director and partner at SGS Economics and Planning, Ellen Witte, believes it’s a problem politicians need to fix. “There is a big failure in both the climate change area and the housing area,” Ms Witte said. At the moment there are no clear rules on where to build new residential development in a way that plans for and mitigates climate change risks at any government level, she explained. “At a local level...

SGS Economics and Planning How much is a good pub worth Choice analysis

The John Curtin Hotel: How much is a good pub worth?

Insights

Arts and Culture

The John Curtin Hotel on Lygon Street in Carlton is being sold to developers who will, most likely, demolish it to make way for apartments. While it isn’t contentious that the Melbourne metropolitan community needs more housing, the sale of The Curtin begs the question – are apartments really the highest and best use of this site? Would the gain in housing warrant the extinction of a storied pub which hosted the union gatherings, including the drinking feats of Bob Hawke, for generations?

SGS Economics and Planning First Nations poeple deserve better deal on development rights

First Nations people deserve better deal on development rights

Insights

By Dr Marcus Spiller: I am not a lawyer, but my understanding of the Mabo High Court decision (1992) is that it put paid once and for all to the proposition of Terra Nullius. Delusional invocation of this idea had allowed the British Crown to extend its law over this continent with no legal consequence in terms of the infringed sovereignty of those already in possession of the land.

SGS Economics and Planning acknowledge the First Nations Peoples of Australia and on whose Country we live and work. We acknowledge that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia never ceded their sovereignty, and are one of the oldest continuing living cultures on Earth, have one of the oldest continuing land tenure systems in the world, and have one of the oldest continuing land use planning and management systems in the world.

Proud members of the Allies for Uluru.