Water consumption data released by Prosper Australia on Saturday found 27,408 homes across Melbourne were empty in 2023 and another 70,453 were barely used.
Empty properties could double-house those on Victoria’s social housing waiting list, leading to calls to use existing housing to solve the crisis.
The study used data from Melbourne’s three water retailers – Yarra Valley Water, South East Water and Great Western Water – across 233 postcodes for the 31 council areas of metropolitan Melbourne.
According to Prosper Australia, an empty home consumed zero liters per day over the course of a calendar year, while an underutilized home consumed between zero and 50 liters per day.
Homes Victoria’s most recent housing register revealed that 48,620 people had applied for a property on the Victorian Housing Register.
He calls on the government to increase land taxes
Chris Martin, a senior research fellow at the University of New South Wales, said the data was timely as it demonstrated the need for governments to encourage property owners to bring more housing to the market.
“The best stimulus is the property tax,” he said.
“By making it more expensive for owners to hold on to housing, the property tax improves the supply and affordability of housing.”
Prime Minister Jacinta Allan presented the proposal in June for all local government areas in Victoria, under which two million homes would be built in metropolitan Melbourne.
The state government noted that Victoria had the highest annual population growth of all Australian states.
Think Forward chief executive Thomas Walker said the sheer scale of vacancies supported calls to address the issue of how property is taxed.
“We can continue to enrich speculators in the hope that some of the supply will reach those who need it,” he said.
“Or we can rethink the way property is taxed, shifting profits from speculation to actually providing homes for people.”
Melbourne’s vacant residential land tax has been in place since 2018 for homes left empty for six months of the year in the central and inner suburbs.
From 2025, the tax will extend to the rest of Victoria and .