Dwelling types

There are a total of 75,184 dwellings in Wyndham. Across Greater Melbourne municipalities the number of dwellings is higher only in Casey (102,049), Mornington Peninsula (89,110) and Melbourne (75,805).

More than four out of five dwellings in Wyndham (83.1%) are separate houses and a further 14% are semi-detached houses. There is a low proportion of flats and apartments (2.5%) and caravans, cabins and houseboats (0.4%). Less than a tenth of a per cent of dwellings are attached to shops, and less than a tenth of a per cent are improvised homes and tents. Note that the definition of homelessness extends beyond those living in improvised homes and tents and that the actual population of homeless people is larger. This is addressed later on in this profile.

Wyndham differs quite substantially from Greater Melbourne in terms of dwelling structure due to its status as a growth council and land availability for separate and semi-detached houses. The key difference is that Greater Melbourne has a higher proportion of flats and apartments (16.1%). In three municipalities, flats and apartments form the majority of all dwellings: Melbourne (84%), Port Phillip (67%) and Stonnington (53%), with Yarra not far behind at 47%.

As shown in the list below, the overall growth in Wyndham dwellings between 2006 to 2011 was higher than in the 2011-2016 period. In 2006, there were just under 41,000 dwellings in Wyndham, increasing to just over 59,000 in 2011 and just over 75,000 in 2016. Semi-detached houses have grown particularly quickly with stock in 2016 more than tripling the 2011 level. Between 2006 and 2011 the growth in separate houses accounted for almost all of the growth in the total number of dwellings. Between 2011 and 2016 separate houses comprised 59.5% of growth in the total number of dwellings, and semi-detached houses 44%.

Dwelling structure, Wyndham, 2006-2016

To a large extent the housing stock in Wyndham is similar across suburbs. In all suburbs except Laverton and Werribee South, separate and semi-detached houses comprise between 92% and 100% of the dwelling stock. In Werribee South, 11% of dwellings are flats or apartments, and 22% are caravans, cabins and houseboats (Wyndham Harbour). Laverton North also differs in that the majority of dwellings are caravans, cabins or houseboats. Laverton North is largely an industrial area with Honey Hush Caravan Park being the main area where people can live.

Dwelling structure, Wyndham suburbs, 2016

Dwelling size

Many of the new estates in Wyndham have been designed for the needs of a moderately sized family. Two developments have likely accelerated the prevalence of separate and semi-detached houses in Wyndham. The first of these is a surge in covenants during the 1980s that regulated minimum floor space size and limited the building of dual occupancies. The second is the low median house price relative to large parts of Greater Melbourne which has attracted young families to areas such as Point Cook and Truganina.

The dwelling structure in Wyndham follows the pattern observed in dwelling types above, and reflects Wyndham’s status as a growth area in a different way. As can be seen in the figure below, more than 84% of dwellings in Wyndham have three or four bedrooms, and just over 8% of dwellings have fewer than three bedrooms. In contrast, more than a quarter of dwellings in Greater Melbourne have fewer than three bedrooms while only around two thirds of dwellings have three or four bedrooms.

Dwelling structure in Wyndham has remained constant since 2006 and 2011 due to the consistent development of family-suitable housing throughout the period. In contrast, there has been a marked change in Greater Melbourne where three and four-bedroom dwellings have made way for dwellings with fewer than three bedrooms.

Dwelling structure, Wyndham, 2016

As demonstrated in the table below, dwelling size across suburbs in Wyndham is largely consistent. The notable exceptions are that in the established areas of Hoppers Crossing and Werribee there is a relatively large number of dwellings with fewer than three bedrooms. Similarly, recent developments have caused Werribee South (Wyndham Harbour) to be an outlier. On the other end of the spectrum Williams Landing and Point Cook have higher proportions of dwellings with five bedrooms or more. As is indicated later, these two areas are also the ones with the highest median income levels across Wyndham.

Dwelling structure by suburb, Wyndham, 2016

The map below displays the distribution of moderately sized family homes (three or four bedrooms) across Wyndham at the most detailed geography available (SA1). The map shows the overall suburb patterns and also indicate several pockets within the suburbs.

Map of three and four-bedroom dwellings, Wyndham, 2016

Dwelling occupancy

Not all dwellings are occupied. As shown in the graph below, around 6.6% of Wyndham’s dwellings were unoccupied in 2016; lower than the 9.1% rate in Greater Melbourne. In addition, while the percentage of unoccupied dwellings has increased steadily in Greater Melbourne, in Wyndham it is at around the same proportion as in 2006 after an increase in 2011.

Since 2011, the number of unoccupied houses in Wyndham has increased while the number of unoccupied flats/apartments has decreased. This likely represents families choosing to buy a house in Wyndham to live in rather than buying for investment purposes. Households may also be unoccupied because they are for sale, newly completed, under repair, or holiday homes (less likely in Wyndham compared with other bayside suburbs due to the lack of waterfront-adjacent properties).

Percentage of dwellings that are unoccupied, Wyndham and Greater Melbourne, 2006-2016

Density

Wyndham has very few high-density areas as the figure below demonstrates. Across the 445 smallest statistical areas against which it is possible to map data, only four areas have high density dwellings.

High density housing as a percentage of all dwellings, Wyndham, 2016

The key differentiation between densities in Wyndham is between medium-density housing (ranging from 25 to 80 dwellings per hectare) and low-density housing (generally between 8 to 15 dwellings per hectare). The figure below maps the distribution of medium density housing. The denser pockets are near local town centres.

Medium density housing as a percentage of all dwellings, Wyndham, 2016¹

Household size

Household size in Wyndham has increased more rapidly than in Greater Melbourne since 2011, and now sits at an average household of 3.1 people. This is up from 2.9 in 2006 and 2011. In Greater Melbourne, average household size has increased to 2.7 in 2016 from 2.6 in 2006 and 2011.

While Wyndham has the largest population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents in Greater Melbourne, it does not have the largest number of households with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander residents. In Wyndham 762 such households exist, behind Casey’s 810. In addition, the average size of these Wyndham households is 3.4 – higher than the overall household average size of 3.1. In total, 1% of Wyndham households are households with an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander resident.

Family structure

Almost half of the households in Wyndham (excluding visitor and unclassifiable households) are made up of couple families with children as the graph below shows. This is more than in Greater Melbourne, where just over a third of households are made up of couples with children. In addition, while in Greater Melbourne the proportion of couple families with no children is about equal to the proportion of lone person households, in Wyndham there are more couple families with no children than lone person households. The graph below also indicates that there are (proportionally) slightly more one parent families in Wyndham than in Greater Melbourne.

Family household structure, Wyndham, 2016

Over the past 10 years, the proportion of Wyndham households that are made up of couples with children has remained substantially higher than the Greater Melbourne average. While the difference was approximately the same in 2011 as it was in 2006, the margin increased significantly between 2011 and 2016. During this period, Greater Melbourne’s trend remained linear while Wyndham saw a sharp increase in couples with children, particularly in the growth suburbs of Point Cook, Tarneit and Wyndham Vale. It follows that Wyndham has one of the highest proportions of couple families with children in Greater Melbourne, only Nillumbik is higher at 47.8% of households. The graph below shows the percentage of dwelling occupied by couple with children in Wyndham and Greater Melbourne from 2006 to 2016. 

Percentage of dwellings occupied by couples with children, Wyndham and Greater Melbourne, 2006 to 2016

The map below shows where the couples with children reside in 2016 as a proportion of all households. The map clearly identifies that Tarneit, parts of Truganina and Point Cook, and small pockets in Wyndham Vale and Werribee are the locations of choice for these families – all areas that have been developed relatively recently.

Couples with children as a percentage of all households, Wyndham, 2016²

Median house price³

Before discussing median house prices in Wyndham, note that this section discusses houses only, and does not discuss units. The definition of what a house is follows from the Australian Valuation Property Classification Codes. In brief, a house has a torrens title while a unit has a strata title. In the former case, the title holder owns the land and the building. In the latter case, the title holder owns the building, but not the land. The data discussed below is comparable across Victorian LGAs and suburbs.

This section discusses real houses prices instead of nominal house prices. Nominal prices measure the dollar value of a house in the year it was purchased. Real prices are adjusted for general price level changes over time, i.e., inflation or deflation. For example, a house in Greater Melbourne in 1987 cost $109,900, but that $109,900 in 1986 due to inflation is equivalent to around $250,159 in 2018 terms. The real house price therefore means that house prices are adjusted for inflation so as to make them comparable over time.

A major reason for Wyndham’s relatively large population growth is the median house price. As shown in the graph below, Wyndham had one of the lowest median house prices in Greater Melbourne in 2018, ahead of only three other municipalities and sitting at around 77% of the Greater Melbourne median of $740,000. Despite high demand for houses, the median house price has not increased as much as in other areas. Much like other growth areas across Greater Melbourne this is likely in part due to the availability of developable land and the relative absence of transport infrastructure investments to increase the accessibility of Melbourne’s CBD.

Median house price by municipality, 2018

House prices have increased significantly over the last 30 years. In Greater Melbourne, house prices more than tripled, increasing from around $250,159 in 1987 to $740,000 in 2018 (adjusted for inflation). The average house price in Wyndham increased from around $142,833 to $567,000 over the same period. Measured in ten-year periods, house price growth in Wyndham has, in the last two decades, moved almost at the same pace as Greater Melbourne. This is demonstrated in the graph below.

Real median house prices and ten-year growth rates, Wyndham and Greater Melbourne, 1988-2018

Median house price growth rates have been relatively stable for Greater Melbourne between 2012 and 2016, hovering at around 5% per year, as shown in the graph below, and increasing to almost 10% in the most recent year. For Wyndham, however, there has been a continuing increase in growth rates since 2013. Between 2016 and 2017 the growth was 15.9%. However, in the 2017-18 there has been a proprtional down turn in both Greater Melbourne and Wyndham. 

With Wyndham being a growth area where families will continue to choose to move in the foreseeable future house prices are likely to increase in the longer term at a greater pace than in Greater Melbourne.

Real median house price growth (%), Wyndham and Greater Melbourne, 2008-2018

Suburbs⁴

Across Wyndham suburbs there is variation around the median Wyndham house price. This is shown in the graph below.

Three suburbs have median prices well above the overall median. They are Point Cook ($645,000), Werribee South ($737,500) and Williams Landing ($685,000). Truganina and Tarneit are both very close to the overall median, Manor lakes is $15,000 below the median, and Werribee and Wyndham Vale are $52,000 and $87,000 under the median respectively. The higher median prices in Point Cook and Williams Landing correlate with the relatively higher dwelling sizes in these suburbs (see Table 3). Most of all, these two suburbs are close to the freeway and are closer to Melbourne’s CBD than any of the other suburbs. This is in contrast to Wyndham Vale, which does not have easy access to the freeway, is the most distant suburb from Melbourne’s CBD, and does not have much surrounding infrastructure other than housing.

Median house price across Wyndham suburbs, 2018

The two suburbs with the highest current median prices have also consistently had higher median prices compared with the other suburbs. In 2012 Williams Landing overtook Point Cook as the suburb with the highest median house price. Werribee South is a bit of an exception, the property sizes here tend to be bigger and the area is noted for it's agricultural and horticultural industries. Note also that Hoppers Crossing has seen a more rapid increase in median house price since 2015 than the other suburbs (except Point Cook and Williams Landing). This is likely due to the lower level of developable land in Hoppers Crossing compared with other suburbs, and its convenient access, relative to other suburbs, to infrastructure such as a metro line train station and Pacific Werribee shopping complex. The graph below shows the real median house provide across Wyndham suburbs from 2006 to 2016. 

Real median house price across Wyndham suburbs, 2008-2018

Tenure type

A little over a fifth of dwellings in Wyndham are fully owned by their occupants (20.5%), and almost half of dwellings are mortgaged (49.5%) as the graph below indicates. A further 28.4% of dwellings are rented from a private owner, similar to Greater Melbourne, and there is proportionally less public housing in Wyndham than in Greater Melbourne (0.9% versus 2.3% respectively). While home ownership across Wyndham and Greater Melbourne are broadly similar (70% and 68.1% respectively), there is a stark difference between the type of ownership. Reflective of Wyndham’s status as a growth area there are proportionally more houses that are currently mortgaged.

Tenure type, Wyndham and Greater Melbourne, 2016

Social housing

Relative to all housing in Wyndham, there is a low proportion of social housing. A total of 632 residences exist across Wyndham, less than 1% of all houses, and more than half of them are located in Werribee. The map below indicates the number of social housing dwellings and their locations. The number of rented social housing dwellings is lower than the Greater Melbourne median of 1.7%. The distribution of social housing in Wyndham suburbs (SA1 level) in 2016 is shown in the map below. 

Distribution of social housing in Wyndham at SA1 level, 2016⁵

Home ownership and renters

As shown in the graph below, home ownership in Wyndham has decreased from over 79% in 2006 to 70% in 2016. This drop is greater than the one observed in Greater Melbourne, where home ownership declined from 73% in 2006 to just over 68% in 2016. The proportion of renters has gone up by about the same degree as home ownership has fallen. While house prices in Wyndham are lower than in Greater Melbourne this does not necessarily mean that they are affordable for all those who choose to move to Wyndham. The decrease in home ownership is in line with affordability trends discussed in a later section.

Home-owners and renters over time, Wyndham and Greater Melbourne, 2006 to 2016

Rent

Median rent in Wyndham is $320, lower than the Greater Melbourne median of $354. The rent increase pattern from 2006 is similar between Wyndham and Greater Melbourne (accounting for inflation) as the graph below shows. A spike occurred between 2006 and 2011 which saw the Wyndham median rent increase from $228 to $311. In the next five-year period, median rent increased to $320. According to the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services’ Rental Report 2017, the large increase between 2006 and 2011 is largely due to a rental price growth of five to 8% between 2006 and 2008, and almost 4% in 2010. From 2011 to 2013 however, growth was around zero, followed by a period of consistent 3% price growth.

Real median weekly rent, Wyndham and Greater Melbourne, 2006-2016

As shown in the graph below, rent differs by dwelling structure, although the pattern in Wyndham is opposite to that observed in Greater Melbourne. In Wyndham, flats or apartments have lower weekly rent than semi-detached houses, which in turn have lower weekly rent than separate houses, $284, $310 and $327 respectively. In Greater Melbourne, flats and apartments have the highest median weekly rent ($359) followed by semi-detached houses ($355) and separate houses ($352). Flats in Greater Melbourne are usually located near urban centres, driving up prices due to proximity to amenities. Similarly, semi-detached housing is more often found in established suburbs around Melbourne’s CBD which are also close to amenities. Separate houses are more often found in outer suburbs.

Median weekly rent by dwelling type, Wyndham and Greater Melbourne, 2016

Housing affordability

Housing affordability in Australia has declined since the early 1980s, especially in the major cities. The graph below compares median house price and median household income growth between 2006 and 2011, and 2011 and 2016. If house prices increase more than household income, housing affordability declines. As the graph shows, house price growth is approximately three times higher than median household income growth for both Wyndham and Greater Melbourne.

In Wyndham, house prices grew 2.9 times faster than household income between 2006 and 2011. This increased to 3.5 between 2011 and 2016, indicating that housing affordability has worsened in Wyndham. In Greater Melbourne, house prices still grew faster than household income but less so between 2011 and 2016 than between 2006 and 2011. The low house prices in Wyndham relative to Greater Melbourne will attract buyers making it likely that housing affordability in Wyndham will decrease further.

Real median house price growth and real median household income growth, Wyndham and Greater Melbourne, 2006-2016

Housing stress

Housing stress is defined as per the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) model as households in the lowest 40% of incomes who are paying more than 30% of their usual gross weekly income on housing costs. The maps and data in this section are from .id’s social atlas resource, October 2017.

The distribution of housing stress across Wyndham is mapped below. Truganina appears to have the largest proportion of households in housing stress, with large pockets also existing in Tarneit, Hoppers Crossing and Werribee, and, to a lesser extent, Wyndham Vale.

Across all of Wyndham, 13.5% of households are experiencing housing stress, up from 12.9% in 2011. In contrast, around 11.7% of households in Greater Melbourne are experiencing housing stress, up from 10.7% in 2011. It is worth noting that the proportion of households experiencing housing stress in Wyndham did not increase as quickly as in Greater Melbourne. Between 2011 and 2016, the proportion of households in housing stress increased by 4.7% in Wyndham and 9.3% in Greater Melbourne.

Housing stress map by SA1, Wyndham, 2016⁶

Almost half of Wyndham households have a mortgage. The distribution of mortgage stress across Wyndham is mapped below. Mortgage stress is almost uniformly spread throughout Wyndham with the exception of Williams Landing and Point Cook. Tarneit and Truganina have the highest mortgage stress rates.

Across all of Wyndham, some 13.3% of households are experiencing mortgage stress. This has not increased much since 2011, when it was 13.1%. Mortgage stress in Wyndham is larger than in Greater Melbourne, where 11.2% of households are experiencing mortgage stress, down from 11.7% in 2011. The decrease in Greater Melbourne is in part due to the relatively small increase in the number of new houses with a mortgage compared to Wyndham. When assessing housing stress in Greater Melbourne, mortgage stress should be viewed in conjunction with rental stress due to house price and rental tenancy trends in recent years that have not favoured first home buyers.

Mortgage stress map by SA1, Wyndham, 2016⁷

The last element of housing stress is rental stress, as mapped below. No clear pattern emerges, except perhaps the small patches of high rental stress in the established areas.

Overall, 26.9% of households that rent are experiencing rental stress, up slightly from 26.7% in 2011. Rental stress is proportionally lower in Wyndham than in Greater Melbourne, where 27.4% of renting households were experiencing rental stress in 2016. The proportion of households in rental stress increased from 24.9% in 2011, an increase of around 10%. In Wyndham, the proportion of households in rental stress increased by less than 1%.

The rental and mortgage stress dynamics in Greater Melbourne are such that due to low and decreasing affordability of houses, families are forced to rent for longer. At the same time, the increasing median house price pushes up weekly rent for those families. In Wyndham this problem is almost absent due to the relative affordability of houses.

Rental stress map by SA1, Wyndham, 2016⁸

Homelessness⁹

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) a person is homeless if they do not have suitable accommodation alternatives and their current living arrangement:

• is in a dwelling that is inadequate, or
• has no tenure, or if their initial tenure is short and not extendable, or
• does not allow them to have control of, and access to space for social relations (refers to overcrowding).

Factors associated with homelessness include low income/unemployment, housing affordability and access to public transport, domestic violence/relationship breakdown, mental illness, and drug and alcohol abuse.

The ABS derives the homeless estimates from the Census using a collection of analytical techniques and a targeted data collection strategy on Census night. 

At the 2016 Census, there were 730 homeless people in Wyndham. This is an increase of 76.3% from 2011, when there were 414 homeless people in Wyndham. Only in the City of Melbourne did homelessness increased more quickly between 2011 and 2016. The increase of 316 homeless people is the fifth largest increase in Greater Melbourne, behind the Cities of Melbourne, Greater Dandenong, Casey and Brimbank.

In 2016 more than half of Wyndham’s homeless population (60%) lived in Werribee (199), Tarneit (132) and Hoppers Crossing (109). As the figure below shows, the homeless population in Hoppers Crossing has decreased from 159 to 109 between 2011 and 2016. In Point Cook the homeless population decreased from 33 to 28. In all other Wyndham suburbs, the number of homeless people has increased:

• Werribee’s homeless population grew from 109 to 199.
• Tarneit’s homeless population grew from 37 to 132 people.
• The homeless population in Truganina grew from 33 to 97 people.
• The Wyndham Vale homeless population grew from 36 to 92 people.
• In Werribee South the homeless population grew from 11 to 51 people.
• The Laverton homeless population grew from 3 to 22 people.

A more detailed profile of the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the Wyndham homeless population can be found here.

Homelessness population by Wyndham surburb, 2011 and 2016