Australia’s ghost towns hiding in plain sight

From abandoned mining towns to empty inner city apartments, Australia’s ghost towns are no longer confined to the regional outback locations, with more than 136,000 homes across the country that sit inactive, new research reveals. Thousands of inactive homes are scattered across capital cities, coastal holiday hotspots to mining regions. New analysis from Ray White Group Economist Atom Go Tian shows 136,278 from Australia’s 10 million dwellings were classified as inactive, representing 1.3 per cent of the nation’s housing stock. The largest capital cities, Sydney and Melbourne, have the highest counts of inactive homes, with around one in three coming from the two cities. The findings highlight a modern form of ghost town, where empty homes can be found not only in remote communities left behind by mining booms, but also in densely populated urban areas and sought-after holiday destinations. MORE: AI fraud targets loans after RBA rates blitz Addresses active in the five years prior to 30 June 2021 but no longer active on 30 June 2021. Source: ABS An abandoned home next to Barrow Creek: the research found Regional NT has the highest proportion of abandoned homes. Picture: Gera Kazak...