Research and advocacy for housing abundance.
YIMBY Melbourne produces rigorous research that creates lasting policy change. Our local advocacy has helped get thousands of homes built, and our state-level policy work has helped unlock more than a million more.
Since 2023, according to Grattan Institute analysis
Generating real, actionable policy change across Victoria
Across major Australian outlets, reaching millions of voters
Undercounting social housing building statistics
We are writing to express our concern that the Australian Bureau of Statisticsʼ building and construction data—specifically the Building Approvals and Building Activity series—are becoming an increasingly unreliable measure of genuine private sector building activity over the short-to-medium term.
A massive victory in the war against upper-level setbacks
The Mid-Rise Code offers greater housing certainty for Melburnians. It also winds back one of the most damaging and poorly evidenced planning controls: upper-level setbacks.
Opposition housing plan a reversion to the 30 year status quo
Whilst YIMBY Melbourne applauds the Coalition’s more positive housing vision, their plans leave too much to be desired.
Cutting the controversy from the density debate
The changing role of planning
Concern over plan for six-storey community housing in Prahran, with just five car parks
“Legacy planning shibboleths are being upended almost daily in Victoria and NSW as state governments override commonly held beliefs, and the vocal objections of local residents, to permit more housing. The YIMBY movements in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Canberra are a big part of that story.”
— Brendan Coates, Program Director, Grattan Institute
YIMBY Melbourne produces evidence-based research that drives housing and land use policy reform.
Since our founding in 2023, we've grown from grassroots advocacy into a research institution with significant impact on policy and discourse.
In September of that year, our first report, Melbourne's Missing Middle, proposed enabling six-storey, mixed-use development near transit — creating 1,992 high-amenity, walkable neighbourhoods.
Since then, land use and housing policy has progressed rapidly across Victoria. And we've continued to release major reports, appear at parliamentary inquiries, and operate at the cutting edge of Australian housing research. Our research and advocacy is cited regularly by MPs, journalists, and leading policy thinkers.
Key staff
YIMBY Melbourne is funded by members and donors, with major support from Coefficient Giving. We take no money from developers or the housing industry.