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Melbourne’s outer suburbs are Australia’s fastest growing regions.

Suburbs in the Victorian capital dominate the Housing Industry Association’s building and population hotspots, led by Rockbank in the outer northwest.

HIA chief economist Tim Reardon said 12 of the top 20 national hotspots, based on residential building work approvals and population growth, were in Melbourne.

The same part of Rockbank seen above, as it was in December 2014. Picture: Nearmap

“The majority of the growth is in the fringe of Melbourne as the city expands, although inner city suburbs such as Southbank and Docklands are also enjoying strong growth as they change to accommodate higher density living,” added Mr Reardon.

“This is not surprising given the significant investment in infrastructure and the region’s growing professional services sector.”

The Rockbank-Mt Cottrell area in the City of Melton had 59.4 per cent population growth during 2017/18 and $224.2 million in building approvals.

“Major infrastructure projects including upgrades to the train station and train lines as well as a new six-lane arterial road connecting the area are expected to maintain the momentum to keep the area as a hotspot next year,” Mr Reardon said.

Construction is booming on Melbourne’s fringes. Photo: Paula ShearerDifferences between building in new or established estates

“Last year’s number one hotspot, Mickleham-Yuroke (in Melbourne’s outer north), has slipped to second place and Pimpama in Queensland’s Gold Coast dropped into third place.”

Cranbourne East in Melbourne’s outer southeast, Wollert in the northeast and Beaconsfield-Officer also in the southeast were also in the top 10 HIA hotspots for growth.

Point Cook, Southbank, Truganina, Tarneit, Docklands, Cranbourne South and Werribee were the other Melbourne areas in the top 20.

For the purposes of the report, a ‘hotspot’ was a locality, technically a Statistical Area Level 2 — or “SA2” — which satisfied two conditions: with in excess of $150 million in residential building work approved in 2017/18 and with an annual population growth rate in excess of the national rate of 1.6 per cent.

New homes are being built at a rapid rate in the outer suburbs.

The Rockbank and Mickleham regions had far greater population growth than anywhere else, at 59.4 per cent and 52.2 per cent respectively, while Cranbourne had 21.2 per cent.

The rest of the Melbourne areas had growth below 20 per cent, down to Werribee at No. 20 with growth of 9 per cent.

This article was first published in www.realestate.com.au. Here is the link to the original article.