Activity Centres – The Bigger Picture
Across Victoria, housing affordability continues to limit people’s ability to live close to the communities, services, and places they value most. Addressing this requires a coordinated shift in how and where we accommodate future growth.
The Victorian Government’s Activity Centres program is a key response to this challenge. It proposes targeted changes to planning controls across 60 centres located along existing train and tram corridors, areas already well connected to jobs, services, and public transport. Collectively, these changes aim to support the delivery of more than 300,000 new homes across Melbourne by 2051.
Ten centres have already been progressed through a pilot program, with planning frameworks now in place. Through 2025 and 2026, the program is being expanded to include a further 50 locations, significantly increasing its influence across metropolitan Melbourne.
This initiative forms part of the broader Plan for Victoria, which establishes housing targets for every municipality and sets the strategic direction for accommodating population growth across the state.
Notably, over 25 of the 60 identified activity centres are located within Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, placing this region at the forefront of change. For practitioners, developers, and communities, this represents a significant shift in how suburban areas will evolve over the coming decades.
Beyond housing supply, the success of these centres will ultimately be measured by the quality of the environments they create. Increased density brings a clear opportunity to deliver greener, more liveable neighbourhoods, where tree canopy, public open space, and well-designed streetscapes are treated as essential infrastructure. A strong landscape-led approach will be critical in shaping activity centres that not only accommodate growth, but enhance community wellbeing, support urban cooling, and create enduring connections between people and place.
