AFL vs NRL, St Kilda Beach vs Bondi Beach, Norton St vs Lygon St. There has always been a rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne. Melbourne is known to be the sporting capital and Sydney is known to have all the landmarks. The competition between the two cities has been going on since the early 1900’s.

Melbourne has always been the little brother to Sydney when it comes to population, but Melbourne is catching up and catching up fast. The Australian Bureau of Statistics predicts Melbourne will overtake Sydney in terms of population numbers within 13 years, however, some say it will take less than that, more like 5 years. Sydney’s population now sits at 5.1 million people while Melbourne is only 200,000 people less at 4.9 million people. The interesting part is that Sydney grew by 1.2 million people between 2006 and now, however, Melbourne grew by 3.6 million people in that same period.

CommSec has recently released their quarterly “State of States” report that outlines the performance of each state on an economic basis. Surprisingly, Victoria has come out on top for the strongest performing economy – beating New South Wales for the first time in four years. This comes off the back of Victoria’s strong population growth and low unemployment levels, while the NSW housing market has softened since mid-2017. Recently, Melbourne has invested in infrastructure, housing projects and focused on creating a city that attracts Australia’s biggest companies, and that’s what happened. Big businesses including the major banks are starting to move their operations to Melbourne. The biggest reason is that Melbourne is still growing and has plenty more room to grow due to the way the city is positioned.

Sydney is surrounded by national parks and water, if you go too far east you fall into the water if you go up north or south there are national parks and if you go west you hit the mountains. Melbourne doesn’t have those factors limiting the space it has to grow. New estates are being formed 20kms from Melbourne CBD, compared to areas such as Marsden Park and Leppington being 50kms from Sydney CBD. When you apply simple supply and demand formulas to it, properties can be built 10kms from the Melbourne CBD and still be priced at mid $400,000s compared to a unit 40kms from the Sydney CBD for the same price. That’s the key, Melbourne is still affordable to buy a property and rent a property, which means the cost of living is not as high for the average punter so they can spend more money on a decent coffee or on smashed avocado.

Even though you will need your umbrella, scarf, sunglasses, sunscreen and thongs all on the same day, I still think Melbourne presents a great opportunity for growth. Let’s not forget Melbourne has been rated the most liveable city for the past 7 years, only losing the title this year to Vienna by 0.07%.

Is Melbourne better than Sydney? You be the judge.

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. Theodore Roosevelt

Thank you for reading.