Better Suburbs = Better Cities

Suburban Futures is the leading advocate for the suburbs as the place where most Australians live, work, play and learn.

We champion a more equitable share of public investment in the suburbs as places of vital economic activity, significant employment opportunity and the hub of community life.

Suburban Futures is a not-for-profit collaboration of individuals and organisations established to highlight the critical role that Australia’s suburbs and regions play in the economy, vibrancy and liveability of the nation.

Our advocacy is built on an evidence-based platform of commissioned research, global insights and shared public policy and market intelligence.

We welcome corporate members and supporters…please subscribe to get involved in our activities and events.

(IT'S FREE)

BECOME A

CORPORATE MEMBER

READ OUR

Imagine what the future could be

Corporate Members

Events

There is strength in numbers and the more people and businesses who subscribe for regular updates (they’re free) and become corporate members the more influence we can collectively have.

There are no industry groups or lobby groups who are promoting the infrastructure, business or community needs of suburban centres but there are plenty of advocates for inner urban infrastructure. Suburban Futures seeks to restore some balance to this.

We are not a lobby group but instead intend to promote leading ideas, world-class thinking, and local issues. Our initial focus is on metropolitan areas but if we get enough support we would hope to expand to include regional centres also.

The Case for suburban renewal…in just 3.5 minutes

What the Experts Say

“The Suburban Alliance (now Suburban Futures) is a go-to source for up-to-date news and information about global suburban trends, and one of the few unbiased resources for learning about the suburban market and suburban land use trends in general. In a time when the intellectual elite and urban planning orthodoxy vilifies suburban forms, outlets such as this one ground truth what is really happening and reveals a vastly different story of the strong global desire to live in less dense, less congested areas outside of urban cores. Urban planning and transportation policy makers should take note and radically rethink outdated models that are failing for their citizens.”

Prof Alan Berger, MITAlan M. Berger is Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he teaches courses open to the entire student body. Prof Berger is Founding Director of MIT's P-REX lab, a research lab focused on environmental problems caused by urbanisation, including the design, remediation, and reuse of waste landscapes worldwide. He is also Co-Director of MIT’s Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU) and co-editor of Infinite Suburbia (2017).

“It’s timely that groups like The Suburban Alliance (now Suburban Futures) stand up for the suburbs, given this is how most Australians - and Americans, Canadians, Brits and New Zealanders - prefer to live and where most will continue to work. Urban density has an important role but should not be mandated or forced to the exclusion of suburban development and suburban centre renewal. Some professionals seem happy at the prospect of forcing the vast majority into dense, centralised warrens. They deride suburban living and suburban work. But do most ordinary Australians want to live under the conditions of the average person in Tokyo, Hong Kong or Manhattan? I doubt it.”

Prof Joel KotkinDescribed by the New York Times as “America’s uber-geographer,” Joel Kotkin is an internationally-recognised authority on global, economic, political and social trends. He is the author of The Human City: Urbanism for the Rest of Us (2016), co-editor of Infinite Suburbia (2017) and many other titles. Prof Kotkin is also Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures (Chapman University, Orange, Calif); Executive Director, Center for Opportunity Urbanism; and Senior Advisor to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. He is Executive Editor of the widely read www.newgeography.com and writes the weekly New Geographer column for Forbes.com.

“While nearly all metropolitan Australians live in the suburbs and 85% of all jobs are in the suburbs these areas are poorly served by transport other infrastructure. The suburbs are almost forgotten in the media debates about infrastructure and priorities. Our cities can’t keep growing the way they have, with congestion, inequity and cost to government rapidly increasing. The role of the Suburban Alliance in forcing a more accurate and fairer perspective on the ways that our cities should grow is increasingly important to all Australians.”

“For MODE, we like that Suburban Futures are actively exploring new frontiers in suburban development – their advocacy, research and high level engagement opportunities are excellent.”

“The thing I value most about Suburban Futures are the conferences and events and consequential networking these events provide.”

“Suburban Futures remains the key advocate and body recognising the dominant role that suburbs continue to play in the everyday life of most Australians”. For those working in this space it provides a valuable forum to learn, meet and debate the future of our industry.”

“Suburban Futures continue to add a lot of value for Logan City through their research, advocacy and events. For a City like Logan where a huge amount of our effort goes into reinvigorating our suburban centres, we really value their support.”