big things are happening

Great piece on the intersection of housing, demographics, and schools in Australian cities by Katie Roberts-Hull. What's worse for neighborhood incumbents than school crowding? School closures. inflectionpoints.work/articles/the...

A flagrant violation of what it means to live in a city.

It is fantastic to see Clare O’Neil and the Federal Government increasingly on-message about the housing crisis. The Minns and Allen governments are undertaking some of the most meaningful and ambitious housing reforms in decades. Federal Government backing is crucial— 🧵

Today we @yimby.melbourne drop our new research note, demonstrating the bias of opt-in community consultation. It will shock no one who’s paying attention, but our sample of 15 consults across six councils found a massive overrepresentation of homeowners and older folk.

The conservative stalwarts over at Charter 29 have put out a new report on Victorian planning reform. It reveals a complete lack of understanding. They think the 'missing middle' is a set of suburbs—but no, it's the medium density housing that they'd like to see remain banned.

We used to build 50 homes per planner annually, but now it’s less than 9. Alan Kohler covering our recent research note on planner productivity 👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iEh...

Absolutely awesome to see my dear friend and collaborator Siang Lu take home the Miles Franklin Award for his excellent novel Ghost Cities. The devil works hard. Siang Lu works harder.

The @inflectionpoints.work launch made an enormous splash. I could not be more proud of what we have already achieved. Our Melbourne launch event is next week, free, and getting booked out fast. Get yours at the link below!

Yes, it is.

This essay won't make the Planning Institute feel any warmer towards @jonobri.com, but the time is ripe for a discussion about the outcomes we expect from our land use planners, and how professional doctrine shapes not just the substance but also the framing of land use and housing debates.

Interesting article from Australia yesterday about the collapse in the productivity of urban planning: for every planner employed there are many fewer homes being produced bsky.app/profile/jono...

Thank you to the Australian Financial Review for publishing an op-ed version of The Problem with Urban Planning. Always an honour to be an editor's choice! bsky.app/profile/jono...

🚨We’re launching the FIRST issue of Inflection Points 🚨 - Michael Brennan & Dan Andrews - Katie Roberts-Hull - Jonathan O’Brien - Andrew Leigh 🧵

Our lead organiser, @jonobri.com, writes for @inflectionpoints.work about "The Problem with Urban Planning" 👇

Spoke to dozens of people for this piece on Australia’s attempts to increase housing density, including the housing minister who says this is “not because of a New York Times bestseller”. Have a read! www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

The Problem with Urban Planning: a professional silo is gatekeeping our nation's growth. My new essay w/ @inflectionpoints.work The problem at the heart of planning is not political—it's professional. 🧵

Soft launching this today. Hard launching this tomorrow.

We are also open to funding from Australian tech billionaires.

Fringe groups have recently started to push a curious line about upzoning and planning reform: they call it "empirics without a theory". They state this line as if it is a gotcha, but forget one thing: empirics is much more important than theory. bsky.app/profile/pros...

This morning, Alan Kohler published an article based on claims from a single conservative legacy planner. Central to the piece is an assertion that Australia needs to develop 34 square kilometres of infill land each year. But it's based on some bizarre assumptions.🧵

Australia's YIMBY movement is relatively new, but it is making an impact and each member has their own housing struggle spurring them on.

The Auditor-General is right: Victorians should not be paying for the privilege of having our public sector deskilled. There are two reasons a department might rely on external consultants, and neither is particularly good. 🧵

It's disappointing to see arbitrary protectionism continue to entrench itself within Australian governments. The primary role of government should be the efficient delivery of infrastructure and services. Mandating localised inputs will only raise costs and lengthen timelines.

Over the weekend, various planners praised New South Wales' use of floor area ratio (FAR) as a planning tool. This is deeply troubling, because everything we care about should tell us that Sydney’s planning system is far from a model—rather, it's a cautionary tale.

Wrote about Japanese kei trucks, an increasingly common sight on Melbourne’s steeets as a smaller alternative to all those truckzillas www.theage.com.au/national/vic...

The mandate for building more is clear. Now it's time to do it. 🏗️🏬

The YIMBY vibeshift continues.

Recently, a group of conservative planners called Charter 29 presented at the planning reform inquiry. The org proudly names themselves after the never-implemented Melbourne Plan of General Development (1929)—a plan that would have destroyed our city. 🧵

Finally, an Australian localisation.

12 homes will become 140 through emergent behaviour in the market thanks to planning reforms! Legacy planners claim that lot amalgamation is only possible through micromanagement—and time and time again we learn: that just isn’t true!

One underrated positive change in the new govt structure is the positioning of housing directly within Treasury, rather than Social Services. This makes sense: housing is fundamental economic infrastructure. 🧵

A side effect of Australia's (positive) lack of litigation opportunities is that it means the main way to slow the development process is—by slowing the process itself. The most effective way to slow development in Australia is not to become a lawyer—it's to become a planner.

Not enough trees Too many trees The wrong trees The right trees (but too many) The trees too big The trees not big enough The trees too native The trees not native enough The canopy being removed The canopy not being removed enough We have to stop taking NIMBYs seriously

The undiscussed headline of last week: Victoria is the only state even close to achieving their housing target under the National Housing Accord. This is huge news for housing affordability in Melbourne and state-wide.

The real story here is how detached house knockdown-rebuilds are exempt from many infrastructure charges also. That means that Melbourne's most high-end, expensive housing goes untaxed—letting wealthy homeowners get off without paying for their fair share of infrastructure.

Excited to announce I'm an Emergent Ventures recipient via Tyler Cowen, ‪@marginalrev.blogsky.venki.dev‬, & the Mercatus Center. I'll be working on expanding the capacity of the Australian movement for progress and abundance. Much more to announce come July—stay tuned!

The new report from the National Housing Supply & Affordability Council is the first from them that I've seen take planning reform seriously. They celebrate the NSW and VIC reforms—and encourage those governments to go further. An enormous vibe shift from NHSAC.

Unbelievable levels of public poasting

The future of energy security relies on my enormous big boy

I like my reforms like I like my architecture: minimal setbacks.

It should be easy to obtain a planning permit for a new house such as this, regardless of heritage overlay. When heritage drives the design of new buildings we risk poor patterns being replicated. Better to thoughtfully reconfigure to reflect today’s living/amenity expectations.

Some planners claim that lot amalgamation does not happen without direct government intervention. Time and time again we see this is untrue: all you need to do is change the incentives, and people will respond.

20 minutes till we enter the gauntlet. Tune in!

I'll be on ABC's Triple J Hack tonight to talk about housing policy and the Federal election! Tune in from 5:30!

The Planning Institute of Australia in Parliament today: "We don't consider [these reforms] conservative." Good.

I'll be going live on @abcnewsbot.bsky.social Melbourne 774 in 10 minutes to talk federal housing policy on a panel for the full hour. Tune in!

Apartments are obviously more affordable than houses. Yet you still hear NIMBYs argue the opposite. Link: www.theage.com.au/property/new...

Buildaballot is pretty clearly harmful (if only on the margins) and if the owners have been made aware of the obvious design flaws, the responsible decision would be to take the tool down.