Benchmarking Melbourne

Melbourne has significant potential to enhance its competitive position – what can it learn from strengths and weaknesses shared with peer cities globally to elevate its proposition and better its comparative ranking?

Melbourne ranks highly in liveability; could this liveability strengthen the rate of start-up formation as observed in Barcelona? Urban regeneration is an ingredient of liveability as seen in many European cities such as Berlin, and highlights how leveraging a city's history can intensify the clustering of occupiers in the creative industry space – how can Melbourne better utilise its own manufacturing history as part of its global brand?

Melbourne shares Austin's strong education ecosystem and talent pipeline that has driven technology sector expansion. Vancouver demonstrates how the prominence of industrial and logistics sectors tenants sustain demand beyond high headline vacancy rates. Can Melbourne position itself as an attractive techsector destination to replicate Austin's tech-driven leasing momentum whilst leveraging its Asia-Pacific gateway advantages similar to Vancouver?

What is the investment outlook for Melbourne's commercial property market if the city continues reforming taxes along lines similar to Kuala Lumpur? How has Kuala Lumpur's expanded sales and service tax impacted commercial property attractiveness and investment appetite, and what does this suggest about Melbourne's changing tax landscape? While the commercial and industrial property tax (CIPT) could enhance transaction volumes and improve liquidity, at what threshold does its impact become negated when paired with the absentee owner surcharge