The great Australian dream is a quarter acre block in the suburbs with a hills hoist out the back and space for the kids to play outside. Or is it?
The Grattan institute conducted a survey of more than 700 people in Melbourne and Sydney to determine what attributes they looked for in housing – and what was available.
The results show that more Australian’s are willing to make trade-offs when it comes to the size and type of housing they live in, if other amenities can be gained.
The report highlighted a significant shortage of semi-detached homes and apartments in both middle and outer areas of Melbourne and Sydney compared to the demand for these building types by respondents.
The findings also showed that this lack of appropriate housing is being driven in part by the incentives facing residential developers. Developers reported that financing practices, planning and land issues and material and labour costs all made medium and higher density developments more difficult and created a disincentive to building these types of homes.
You can read the full report here.
Mark Metters
‘The great Australian dream is a quarter acre block in the suburbs’. I was running my Suburban Challenge program (sustainable living schools program) months back when a student, jokingly, in her group said ‘Julia (Gillard) should change the great Australian dream to ‘one day, when I am older and can afford it, I will aspire to buy a flat’. In keeping with the laugh, I questioned if that is how they really see their futures? . Their response was equally interesting ‘ no, it was just what you have been talking about, i will be living in a house, dog, backyard, kids, pool etc’ …dream still there.