Dumped rubbish and parking wars now the biggest threat to Australian property values

4 weeks ago 12

Forget marble benchtops – the hottest property feature right now is a clean, well‑kept street.

A record 1.5 million neighbourhood complaints this year points to a simple truth for sellers and buyers alike: the mess outside your front fence can make or break a home’s value.

A new snapshot of resident reports to councils shows dumped rubbish has become the nation’s number one gripe, with more than 200,000 alerts lodged via the Snap Send Solve app, which has recorded a 20 per cent jump in reports compared with last year.

Illegally parked cars were close behind with 157,000 complaints, while potholes, graffiti, trees and overgrown vegetation also filled council inboxes.

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Abandoned and illegally parked cars were a key complaint on the app. Source: Snap Send Solve

But dumped rubbish was the biggest cause of frustration for Aussies this year. Source: Snap Send Solve

In regional areas, abandoned shopping trolleys top the charts.

“Australians are stepping up. More people are choosing to take responsibility for the places they live, and the numbers show they want issues solved quickly and transparently,” the app’s CEO and founder Danny Gorog told Yahoo News.

He added that uploading a photo with a geotagged report leads to faster resolutions and eases pressure on other communication channels.

Melbourne’s dumping shock lays bare a bigger crisis

The scale of illegal dumping – and its impact on property appeal – was laid bare on Melbourne’s fringe earlier this year when strong winds plastered a golf course fence in Moorabool Shire with builders’ waste, from an empty concrete bag to polystyrene blown off nearby housing sites.

“We’ve had several days of strong winds, and there’s a large volume of builders’ waste against the fence of the golf course as a result,” a local resident told Yahoo News, saying the area was starting to look “like a landfill”.

Abandoned trolleys were one of the biggest gripes around the country, with a whopping 150,000 complaints. Source: Snap Send Solve

Discarded foam matting, plastic sheeting and polystyrene – materials ubiquitous on building sites – are regularly found abandoned, decomposing under UV exposure and polluting the landscape.

That kind of environmental degradation directly undermines the appeal and investment potential of new estates, dragging on values and eroding quality of life for residents.

Local councillor Steven Venditti‑Taylor has urged Australians to “do better”, lamenting a perceived lack of pride.

Parking wars hit the suburbs

Parking wars are also boiling over in tightly held suburbs, with liveability – and resale prospects – caught in the crossfire.

In Concord in Sydney’s inner‑west, residents fed up with hospital‑related traffic say they’ve taken matters into their own hands, painting DIY white lines on the street and sticking makeshift “parking enforcement notices” on vehicles.