The long day care market continues to experience over- supply in some areas, particularly in the inner Sydney metropolitan area. The over-supply is being driven by entry into the market of property developers looking to benefit from Sydney’s high real estate prices, combined with the need to operate larger centres in order to sustainably meet educator to child ratios and cover overheads. Over the past few years patterns of demand have also changed, resulting in a softening of demand particularly for places on Fridays and increasingly on Mondays, and shorter lead times for people applying for places. This is partly as a result of the increase in supply of places, but also in response to more flexible work patterns including an increase in part-time work and working from home. Our average utilisation in 2017–18 was 91% of capacity, and while this was below our budgeted level, it is a strong result compared with the reported averages across the sector (for example, the 2017 National Childcare Barometer which estimates average utilisation in NSW at 78%). 21 Changes in demand in the long day care market