Postcode 3000
Postcode 3000 was a planning policy for Melbourne, Australia coordinated by the City of Melbourne and supported by the state government, then under the newly elected Premier Jeff Kennett (LIB) .
The policy, which began in 1992, was aimed at increasing residential development in the Melbourne city centre including the central business district and St Kilda Road and was run through the mid to late 1990s.
The policy provided incentives for people living in the central area. Nonda Katsalidis award winning design for Melbourne Terrace Apartments combined with a new desire for New York Loft Style living stimulated interest in consumers, and the first wave of lived in boutique apartments and trendy converted old buildings and warehouses. Subsequent waves of developments saw the conversion of unnocupied lower grade office buildings and construction of new apartment towers. The fruits of these efforts eventually spilled out into the neighbouring suburbs of Southbank and Melbourne Docklands and later Carlton (in the form of university accommodation).
After implementation, the populations of these areas increased dramatically and produced 3000 new apartments before the end of the decade.[1] The policy had the additional benefit of reducing total office occupancy and vacancy rates space (which were previously at their highest rates in decades), which in turn fuelled further construction in the commercial office space.