Realistic growth forecasts for urban utilities: separating what is zoned, what developers promise and what the market will actually deliver.
First presented on Tuesday 4 August 2026.
Planning reforms have shifted where and when housing growth will land. Rob Hall, Oliver Bowering and Nenad Petrovic separate what's zoned from what the market will actually deliver, using real examples from our recent work with Utilities including Shoalhaven and Hunter Water.
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Chief Economist

Senior Forecast Consultant

Head of Consulting
This session is for the people who plan infrastructure, prioritise upgrades and answer for those decisions to boards, regulators and the community. Network, strategy and demand planners at water, power, data and transport utilities, across growth areas and established suburbs, metro and regional.
The demand planning decisions you make today set capital works programs and investment priorities for years to come. They need to rest on what the market will actually build, not on what is theoretically possible.
It is just as useful if you advise on or invest in that demand, from energy retailers and renewables developers to infrastructure advisers who need independent evidence of where growth will land, and when.
The headline stories

Where growth actually lands
Why planning reforms have moved where housing growth lands, and why a forecast made before them can look right in total yet wrong on location.

'Zoned' is not the same as 'built'
How development feasibility exposes the gap between zoned capacity and the housing the market will realistically deliver, and when.

Timing and sequence, not totals
How to understand the timing and sequence of development, not just an aggregate forecast.

Why supply competes
Why developments compete to fill first, so a piece of infrastructure can be needed years later than it first appears.

Your area in the national picture
Why it's important to understand your service area in the context of neighbouring regions and the wider national growth picture.

Beyond new homes
Why jobs and industry, not just new homes, drive the demand you need to plan for.
