Bendigo's housing squeeze: how a Victorian regional city stacks up against Glasgow, Geelong and beyond

The City of Greater Bendigo adopted a revised Housing Strategy implementation plan at its June 25 council meeting, accelerating rezoning assessments across the Strathdale and Kangaroo Flat corridors. The timing is pointed: national data shows first-home buyer loan commitments fell 11 per cent in the March 2026 quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, yet Bendigo's median house price — sitting at roughly $580,000 as of May — has proved stickier than markets in Melbourne's outer suburbs.

That gap between softening prices and still-locked-out buyers matters acutely in a regional city that depends on a stable workforce pipeline. Bendigo Health is mid-way through a $630 million capital expansion at Lucan Street, and La Trobe University's Edwards Road campus is projecting enrolment growth of around 8 per cent over the next two years. Both institutions have flagged staff recruitment difficulties they attribute, in part, to housing affordability. Council knows it cannot lose those anchor employers.

What other cities have tried

Glasgow is the most discussed comparison right now, partly because of renewed attention on the Scottish city's community-led crime-and-disadvantage model and what Victoria might borrow from it. But Glasgow's housing story is equally instructive for Bendigo. The city spent much of the 2010s releasing brownfield industrial land near the Clyde waterfront for medium-density development at regulated affordability thresholds — a slow, contested process that eventually produced around 4,200 new dwellings between 2015 and 2023. Bendigo's councillors received a briefing paper in May citing Glasgow, along with Ballarat and Launceston, as comparable cases where medium-density infill near existing transport spines delivered the fastest affordability relief.

Geelong, the most direct Victorian comparator, approved a Fast-Track Residential Growth overlay across six suburbs in 2024 that cut planning permit timelines from an average of 187 days to 61 days for complying dual-occupancy applications. The City of Greater Geelong reported a 22 per cent rise in new dwelling approvals in the 12 months following the overlay's introduction. Bendigo's planning department has studied that scheme closely. A council officer report tabled in June recommends a pilot of similar provisions in the Eaglehawk and Long Gully precincts, citing lower land costs and existing bus-route coverage on McIvor Road as enabling factors.

Local pressure points and what council is doing

The Eaglehawk-Long Gully pilot is the most concrete near-term move. If councillors endorse it at the August 12 ordinary meeting, the planning team believes the first rezoning determinations could land before the end of the 2026 calendar year. That would fast-track potential housing supply on roughly 34 hectares of underutilised residential-zoned land — enough, officers estimate, for between 180 and 240 new dwellings at medium density.

Community Housing Bendigo, which manages 412 tenancies across the municipality, told council in a submission last month that its waitlist has grown to 1,140 households — a record. The organisation's headquarters on Bull Street has fielded a 34 per cent increase in first-contact inquiries since January. That figure underlines the gap between what market supply can currently offer and what a large share of the workforce actually needs.

The rental picture is no easier. The Real Estate Institute of Victoria reported Bendigo's median weekly rent for a three-bedroom house reached $430 in the June 2026 quarter, up from $375 in June 2024. That two-year jump of roughly 15 per cent outpaced wage growth in the region over the same period.

Residents and workers watching this process should note the August 12 council meeting as the key date. The agenda will be published on the City of Greater Bendigo website by August 5, and the planning department is accepting written submissions on the Eaglehawk-Long Gully pilot until July 25. For anyone already on the Community Housing Bendigo waitlist, the organisation has flagged a new allocations information session at the View Street Arts Hub on July 17, aimed at clarifying priority categories under Victoria's Housing Register rules — worth attending for anyone unsure of where they stand.