Monash study reveals Sydney among the top cities who work on capacity – realestate.com.au

Sydney officially works on capacity.

Inadequate housing stock, transport facilities and hidden infrastructure mean that one of the most popular destinations in the country has shown a new study.

Research from Monash University and their Institute of Transport Studies has shown the optimum number of residents that an Australian city must maintain peak durability and liveability.

It revealed the ideal capacity where housing, jobs, transport and services are balanced to fit the number of residents, where Sydney deemed to have more residents than the infrastructure and facilities.

The figures from Monash analysis showed that Sydney was the seventh most overflowing city in the country and worked with slightly less than 5 percent more people than should.

Higher populated cities reported a transmission of cars and increased traffic. Image: Newswire / John Appleyard.

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With the city council of around 5 million people, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the findings would suggest that Sydney has around 250,000 more inhabitants than the optimum number.

The Gold Coast was considered the most crowded, with the population 12 percent above capacity. The Central Coast, Murray Bridge, Newcastle, Sunshine Coast and Melbourne also had more residents than the optimum number.

Cities such as Perth and in South Australia turned out to work close to their ideal size.

The study determined the “magical number” for the size of a city by using four growth mats and function: status of capital city, access to jobs, the mix of services and how well it is connected.

Cities with population about capacity usually had higher costs and infrastructure tribe, as can be seen in Sydney.

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Sydney is one of the top cities that work above capacity. Photo: Monash University.

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The research shows that Sydney works upstairs, which can theoretically support it. Photo: Monash University.

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Capital Study Author, associate professor Liton Kamruzzaman, unveiled solutions on transport, work locations and honest rules for land use can help cities to distribute evenly to find “The Goldilocks Rule”: capacity on the size of “Just Right”.

“When a city becomes too large, the signs are clear; longer living, traffic jams, rising rental prices and overcrowded services,” said Kamruzzaman.

“But if it is too small, valuable infrastructure and opportunities will be lost.

“The use of this study as a benchmark that can be designed new cities with a population assortment that avoids the pitfalls of over or under capacity, while existing can be re-calibrated by policy trees such as transport connections or decentralized jobs.”

Perth turned out to work on almost the “exactly right” size, almost capacity. Image: Istock

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He only emphasized the size of the city, did not determine whether it was emphasized.

“This study shows that it is not about being big or small,” he said. “The point is whether the population of a city corresponds to what its systems can handle. That is the key to sustainability.”

Sydney feels all the effects, with Aussies the housing goals of the governments did not concern.

The National Cabinet expects Australia to build 1.2 million new houses by 2029, but approvals of construction will be delayed, declining by 8.2 percent in July 2025, the ABS revealed. Only 188,727 new homes were built nationally in the year until July 2025.

Master Builders Chief Economist Shane Garrete said that the building progress has been too slow and that the approximately 188,000 houses that were built throughout July were not enough.

“We probably had a shortage of 60,000 houses during the first year of the Housing Accord, so we have to do an average of 255,000 houses annually over the remaining four years of the agreement,” he said.