Rebuild Map
Where Melbourne is knocking down and rebuilding, suburb by suburb, from government building permit records.
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Demolitions and new houses: common questions
Which Melbourne suburbs have the most house demolitions?
In 2024, Glen Waverley had the most house demolition permits of any Melbourne suburb (212), followed by Mount Waverley (154), Bentleigh East (117) and Balwyn North (112). Over 2009 to 2024, Glen Waverley and Mount Waverley lead too, each with more than 2,200. Every knockdown rebuild starts with a demolition permit, although some demolitions make way for townhouses or a vacant lot.
Where do the figures come from?
From the building permit activity data the Victorian Building and Plumbing Commission publishes on Data.vic. Each permit is counted once, in the year it was reported, against the suburb of the property. A permit records approval to build or demolish, not that the work was finished, and the latest year holds only part of the year.
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How we worked this out
The counts come from the Victorian Building and Plumbing Commission's building permit activity data, published on Data.vic under a CC BY 4.0 licence. A house demolition is a permit for demolition work on a Class 1 building (a house, townhouse or similar). A new house is a permit for a new Class 1 building; one permit can cover more than one dwelling. Each permit is counted once, in the year it was reported, against the suburb of the property.
Every knockdown rebuild starts with a demolition permit, so the demolition count shows where people are starting again. The data has no street numbers, so a demolition can't be matched to the new home built on the same lot. Some demolitions also make way for townhouses or a vacant lot.
Suburb outlines are Vicmap locality boundaries, simplified for the web. A permit records approval to build or demolish, not that the work was finished. The latest year holds only part of the year.