Small businesses braving big challenges – and flourishing

Point Cook, one of Melbourne’s fastestgrowing new suburbs, showed us there is very high dog ownership and people love to spend their time exploring the natural waterways and coastal reserves. The property developer is now able to make sure its housing project supports those local values.”

Similarly, exploring Facebook and Google data allowed her to see the high number of small businesses run from homes across the neighbourhood. Many new greenfield developments are thought to be residential only but it’s clear that Point Cook has a more diverse mix of activities that can be supported by urban planning.

Neighbourlytics has been hired by Lendlease, the City of Sydney, Frasers Property and the University of Technology Sydney to provide urban insights. With just three full-time staff and 15 contractors, the business has been designed to scale.

Scaling was always a challenge for CoDesign Studio, says Christiansen-Franks, as it could only grow as fast as it could find new staff. However, it can now access data from Neighbourlytics – spending a fraction of what it would cost to collect with clipboards and surveys – and build on that.

Neighbourlytics can also take on completely different work that would not have been possible under the CoDesign Studio model. For example, feasibility studies about yet-to-be-announced projects need urban planning insight but can’t go to the public for comment ahead of a plan being revealed. Neighbourlytics can provide that insight without letting the cat out of the bag.