The waitlist for social housing through the Ballarat office of Housing Victoria now stretches past 900 applicants. That single figure sits at the centre of a growing community argument about whether the city's planning framework — and the state government's response to it — is actually working for the people most affected by it.
The urgency is real. Ballarat's population is projected to reach 160,000 by 2040 under the Central Highlands Regional Partnership's growth modelling, yet rezoning decisions, infrastructure headaches, and a chronic shortage of affordable stock are conspiring to push working families toward the margins of a city that has branded itself on community and heritage.
The Streets Where It's Playing Out
Talk to residents along Gillies Street North in Wendouree — a suburb that bore the brunt of Ballarat's rental surge over the past three years — and the frustration is consistent. Families who have lived in the area for decades describe being unable to renew leases as landlords either sell up or reset rents well above what they were paying. The median weekly rent for a three-bedroom house in Wendouree crossed $390 in early 2026, according to data published by the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, up from $310 in mid-2023.
Further east, near the Ballarat East precinct around Barkly Street, a different tension is visible. Here, community members are watching infill development reshape blocks that once had single dwellings. Some welcome the density. Others, including several residents who raised concerns at a City of Ballarat planning committee meeting held in May, worry that heritage streetscapes are being chipped away without adequate community consultation. The City of Ballarat's Municipal Planning Strategy, which was reviewed in 2024, nominates increased residential density in established suburbs as a priority, but residents say the process of converting that policy into specific approvals has felt rushed and opaque.
The Ballarat Community Land Trust, a small but vocal organisation that has been pushing for a community housing model similar to schemes operating in Bendigo and Geelong, held a public forum at the Ballarat Mechanics' Institute on June 12 attended by roughly 80 people. The mood was described by attendees as more exhausted than angry. Participants ranged from nurses employed at Ballarat Health Services who said they could not afford to buy within a 10-kilometre radius of the Base Hospital on Drummond Street North, to retirees on fixed incomes facing lease non-renewals.
Numbers That Don't Add Up for Buyers Either
The median house price in Ballarat sat at $548,000 in the March 2026 quarter, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria's regional report published in April. That is down slightly from the peak of $587,000 recorded in late 2023 but still represents a 38 percent increase over five years — a gap that has widened faster than wages in any comparable regional occupation category tracked by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Victoria's Housing Statement, released by the Allan government in late 2023, earmarked Ballarat as one of nine regional growth areas targeted for accelerated planning approvals. Twelve months on, advocates say the pipeline of new affordable dwellings flowing from that commitment has been modest. The Sebastopol Structure Plan, which covers one of the city's fastest-growing southern corridors, is still working through its final stages at the Department of Transport and Planning, meaning that several proposed social housing allotments in that precinct remain in limbo.
The City of Ballarat's next ordinary council meeting is scheduled for July 22, where a planning amendment affecting residential zones in the Lucas growth corridor is expected to come before councillors. Community members who lodged formal submissions — more than 140 were received — have been told they will have a chance to be heard. Whether that hearing shapes the final decision, or confirms it, is the question most of them are asking going in. For those on the Housing Victoria waitlist, the answer cannot come quickly enough.
