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The other problem is pets, like nearly no apartment landlord approves me because of my cat so i gotta go for houses or townhouses 9/10 of the times but lets not add the part that we have one of the biggest countries in the world and it's deliberately made hard to build outways or buy due to ridiculous prices and zoning laws. its not made for the everyday aussie this system, its created to funnel more money into the international rich. heck we let someone born in England be our prime minister (tony abbott)
Haberfield is beautiful I lived that way on the ashfield side of the highway, it'd destroy the heritage in that specific area not to mention the majority of people living in the city surrounds have no license and are foreigners no Aussie wants to live near the city or in tightly dense areasf Haberfield is small and it's an icon and one of the only untouched areas of Sydney, you need to understand how things were to enjoy the future.. you're speaking for yourself and none of the aussie people. we do not agree with Wollongong University. I'd rather own a cheap home towards the blue mountains, but that cheap house doesn't exist because of intense levels of immigration over the last thew years. 10 years ago owning a western Sydney home was within reach, 24 years ago owning a house in Western or South West Sydney was more then within a realistic goal set. But if Orange ECT was actually cheap id go their in a heart beat but the town i am from in far north QLD still is 500K-800K median house price, so how again is that affordable, an affordable house is impossible in Australia and it's because of foreigners or politician and hedge funds/businesses investing/or even the trumps and obamas and Clive Palmers of the world that wanna own everything and all wealth. we have being reduce to nothing but a renters class by purpose
@@aussienovax The issue of pets in Strata has two parts to it: For owner occupiers - the rules a lot easier now, you can have a pet in an apartment and there’s legislation that prohibits any ByLaw to stop this or from a strata committee from refusing your request. However, the same is not true for tenants living in apartments where the ban on pets has come directly from the landlord, as they probably stipulated ‘NO PETS’ on their ad, and then it gets written into the lease. I personally think this sort of blanket rule shouldn’t be allowed either, however I do see it from both sides as landlords do worry about the damage (esp a dog) could create on flooring/carpet etc.
@@bennyboost yeah I lease. Shocked me how many people rejected my application only because I owned a cat. I don’t apply for property that say no pets allowed. I entirely understand dogs, dogs make so much damage lol. lil dummies sometimes, my mates dog ran through a Gyprock wall so I don’t blame landlords in that regards, but idk I am a strong believer in if your pet makes the damage you just fix it or even if a landlord said okay I’ll charge you more bond I’d find that to be a fair addition if it could be legally done but obviously the question is how many people would try to scam that system and claim their own damages. Not all ingoing and outgoing inspections are perfect or More of direct leasing through the landlord
I believe the retirement crisis will get even worse. Many struggle to save due to low wages, rising prices, and exorbitant rents. With homeownership becoming unattainable for middle-class Americans, they may not have a home to rely on for retirement either.
Consider buying stocks when the economy is not doing well, like during a recession. It could be a chance to buy them at a lower price and sell later when prices go up. Just keep in mind, this isn't financial advice, but sometimes it's better than keeping a lot of cash.
If you lack market knowledge, your best bet is to seek advice or support from a consultant or investing coach. Contacting a consultant may sound simple, but it's how I've managed to stay afloat in the market and increase my portfolio to roughly 65% since January. It is, in my opinion, the best way to get started in the industry right now.
'Sonya Lee Mitchell, a highly respected figure in her field. I suggest delving deeper into her credentials, as she possesses extensive experience and serves as a valuable resource for individuals seeking guidance in navigating the financial market.
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps! Says the boomer who bought his house for the price of 7 potatoes in 1986 and its now worth 2.9 million dollars for some reason.
I don't see housing prices falling much until the supply is increased. In the USA we are short millions of housing units, and we aren't building nearly fast enough. People always need a place to live and we are constantly making new people. Any slight dip in prices unlocks a bunch of buyers who will gobble up that supply instantly. I want to buy inexpensive houses in 2024 and maybe invest in stocks. When's the best time to buy stocks? Some people say they make money, but others say it's risky. Any advice?
Consider investing in stocks and acquiring gold for potential profits amidst inflation. The retirement crisis may worsen as many face challenges saving due to low wages, inflation, and high rental costs, leaving homeownership out of reach for the middle class.
If you lack market knowledge, your best bet is to seek advice or support from a consultant or investing coach. Contacting a consultant may sound simple, but it's how I've managed to stay afloat in the market and increase my portfolio to roughly 65% since January. It is, in my opinion, the best way to get started in the industry right now.
There are many financial coaches who excel in their profession, but for the time being, I employ Sonya Lee Mitchell because I adore her methods. You can make research and find out more
Living in different cities in Asia, there's definitely a place for apartments in Australia. The problem is we don't know who should live in them or how and where to build them. I love living in a nice apartment and I can just as easily love having my own house on a block to take care of, so it should be about purpose and what is suitable. I visit my parents in Aus in the suburb I grew up in. The area is still mostly populated by the same people, like my parents, who raised their kids but now live in a house with spare bedrooms and a yard they can't really take care of anymore. The school I went to is now full of empty classrooms. My parents have to drive (only one of them can drive now) to Woolies, drive to the doctor, drive anywhere else and very rarely see anyone in the street. If the area had a main strip of nicely built condos with green space and transport (i mean nice to live in like Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok or Singapore), they could enjoy great lifestyle - a swim in the pool, relax in the garden, walk on a treadmill in the gym, pick up groceries from a shop downstairs, most likely walk to a doctor or just go down the road to get there. If all communities had a mix of housing, and that includes a variety of high density, variety of medium density etc, then people could genuinely choose what fits their lifestyle. Houses with yards should really be for families with kids. But that brings me to the thing that is never really talked about - Australians don't know how to behave. I'm sure if any of the beautiful high density complexes I've lived in were transplanted to Australia, people would make noise, ruin things, knock things off, etc etc - literally the example of the saying "this is why we can't have nice things". I think it everyday I've lived overseas - how nice it is to have so much convenience, safety, attractive parks and huge public spaces, and then think how back home some deros would deliberately ruin it. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a yard but it shouldn't be the only real option for a nice life. Australia can do so much better. Those newer suburbs of two storey homes being gutter to gutter, tiny streets where visitors can't park and having to drive just to go buy some milk, is definitely my idea of hell.
I just commented something similar to this, just moved to a townhouse in the suburbs from a mixed use apartment, I hate going to the shops now or even just going out for a coffee or even going to the doctors and now the city is much farther from me and I don’t go anywhere anymore. Having to drive anywhere annoys me lol, walking downstairs and having everything I need within a 1min walk is insane to me, insanely convenient!
Poor construction quality is one of the reasons. Also historical controls on what you can do in an apartment, e.g. own pets - plus bad options for connected services like broadband, TV.. An entire block may be locked into a single out-of-date solution. I grew up in country towns in houses with big back yards. No one plays sport in them - that's what the parks, playing fields, swimming pools, tennis courts etc were used for.
Precisely. Who wants to live that close to a neighbour? And who wants to ask a neighbour every time you want to do any alterations to the outside of your home? HK, Singapore and other densely populated nations have no choice but to pack people into apartments/flats.
Never mind nations lacking choice. Just take the city of Sydney as a prime example in this country that no longer has a choice. It’s completely landlocked and has nowhere left to sprawl. We have to demolish and infill with higher density accommodation in order to house the growing number of people who want to move here.
@@brlo1973 And a lot of SIN seems to be emigrating Downunder. I tell the newcomers; don't congregate in the cities. Go to the country side or nearby coastal towns. That's the only way to be immerse with the True Blue culture. G'die Mate.
Newer apartment regulations would stamp out every single concern you have that is well outdated. No strata committee can refuse a reasonable application to keep a pet. I live in a 4 year old apartment with great nbn broadband service. The selfish baby boomers are just in the way of us getting a place to live with your outdated ideologies
As a Sydney unit-dweller, I’m torn. 1. All those new McMansions don’t even get built with backyards anymore. People are living cheek-by-jowl in outer suburbs with no facilities… they may as well live in units. BUT 2. Let’s not tear down the old, beautiful and only solidly-built houses left in our city for the sake of more Mascot/Opal garbage. I guess Paris, London and Madrid are famous for their beautiful and historic architecture and the way they’ve combined these with modern city life. Surely we can do the same?
Yes, some new regulations would ensure these suburban residential blocks are two meters from the side fence and garden space is planned to provide green space as this helps to lower surrounding temperatures. I also find the housing ugly, fortress-like, and devoid of natural environment habitats for birds and small creatures. Not to mention, those new suburbs are not mixed builds inclusive of social and affordable dwellings with small businesses, workshops and the necessary schools, and recreational facilities.
We need to tear down single dwellings and replace them with higher density residences if those single dwellings are located in high amenity areas. It's just math. Or otherwise, stop voting for parties with Big Australia agendas... which is all the big ones.
"who wants to live side by side shoulder to shoulder"... They should look at the newest suburbs of Sydney and Perth. Those houses have like, 1m between them max.
Yep, you lean too far out your side window and you'll be leaning in your neighbours. You could damn near make coffee in his kitchen without leaving your own house
Really had high hopes for this video, but the immature narration and shallow analysis of the issue lets it down significantly. Less emotion and sarcasm and more data to back up your arguments.
And then will ridicule more transit and active transport infrastructure as waste of time and money because everyone drives, then complains about road traffic and how nothings being done, and wouldn’t allow a hospital complex in his suburb, that’s wrong and destroys ‘character.’
To paraphrase Gareth Klieber, if you can get to your local café in 15 minutes, but the barista making your coffee can't afford to live less than half an hour away, then you live in a theme park.
I grew up in haberfield and my old primary school has been forced to cull the number of classes in each year, as nobody with primary school aged kids can afford to live there anymore
@@bendowson3124 My country is also seeing localised aging population in older, inner suburbs as the gov't had concentrated public house-building in outer, newer suburbs to populate them as rapidly as possible (to justify building more facilities for them), & public housing is popular among younger people when they move out & start a family as its cheaper. So some facilities e.g. swimming pools in older suburbs had been closed down due to declining usership. As for schools, the inner suburbs are home to the more prestigious ones, so maybe these changes in population might ease the competition for them, with people staying nearer getting priority, but people with other connections to the school get even more priority e.g. if you parents were alumni/alumna/members or churches/clans affiliated to the school, or if your sibling studies at the same school. However some prestigious schools have been moved to newer suburbs in our history
I'd love to see an episode on "The Best Apartments in Sydney" highlighting well-designed, well-connected, well regarded apartment developments across the city. Bonus points for developments adjacent to heritage conservation areas, to show the haters that they can co-exist. The social media discourse around housing typically focuses on the problems, on negatives, so it would be great to have something positive to share in response.
Agree 100%. I'm all for advocating for higher density housing, however the general public needs to see real examples of what we'll designed higher density living could look like. Currently when they hear apartments they think Mascot Towers.
And then after the "The Best Apartments in Sydney" are built and standing for a few years and then start falling apart who will people sue? With the quality of things these days it is just not worth taking the risk to promote "New" Apartment complexes. I am sure the Heritage people around the "Mascot" are really happy coexisting with their new neighbor.
I saw a reddit thread about YIMBY today. It's painfully clear that older Australians who own their own homes live in a completely different reality to us younger folks. They're in for a rude awakening as more and more young people turn 18 and start voting - housing policy is going to define elections for decades to come.
Haha... So older people are to blame for working hard and buying a house years ago for them and their family to grow in? But when there is enough of you with your way of thinking we are going to use the power of the State and corrupt self serving politicians to get your homes for repurposing and for the benefit of all? Sounds like Communist/Socialist propaganda to me? How about you use your voting rights to elect politicians who will stop profiteering from foreign investors buying up properties, which is one of the biggest causes of the current situation?
Not really related to apartments but I hate the current trend of building houses right on top of each other, why can't we just build actual rowhouses/townhouses if we're going to build houses right up to each other!
Yeah row houses with a firewall so there's no noise pollution. Saves on the heating & cooling bill too. What's the point of the tiny alleyway? Store your rakes? Just have the plots slightly longer & put a shed on it.
I've seen more of those recently but personally would rather see more 4 bed town houses where it's rows of just the two joined together, so everyone gets a side access and nobody shares a wall with more than one other building so soundproofing is much easier. and you can fit in a double garage So many folks need a work from home office and the 3 beds often have two tiny rooms and only one suitable for an adult, plus only one car garage and no storage so they end up not working long term for older kids who are inceasingly staying at home, multigeneration households or folks who want to take on a lodger to help pay a mortgage. Sure you don't get a massive yard but you often get things like a better area, pool and gym or parkland, and all at a much more affordable cost than buying a house squashed next to a neighbour with no yard anyway!
I am an Australian living in the United States and find the housing situation concerning. What I have observed in Australia is there are a few very tall apartments, massive numbers of free standing houses, without a lot of medium density homes. Here in the United States, I am in a nice area and we have a mix of all housing types. We have a lot of apartments but they usually max out at 4 x levels. In my apartment community, we have walking trails, greenery and often see deer roaming around with plenty of space for the little one to play...and yet next door is a big house on a huge block. However, there are a lot of medium density row homes for those looking for something more affordable than a free standing home but not wanting to live in an apartment block. So you will see a lot of these two level row homes and they are very livable for anyone. With this, we achieve a good population density without sky scrapers and good quality of life.
I think there should be a deal made between both Nimbys and Yimbys. Build the apartments but have the exteriors resemble the heritage listed houses, it would be like Sydney's version of New Yorks inner boroughs or the city centres of many European cities. A lot of the issues people have with the new apartments especially in the inner suburbs is that these buildings are all the same modernist design. This has been done before in the Eastern Suburbs like Bondi, surely a similar plan could be executed in the inner west
Would certainly be interesting, I'd also say now you'll need to get builders/financiers/architects involved proper. Would certainly love to see quality of things improve, not continue to devolve...
Build 6 storeys of charming European styling. It's not even particularly expensive. In Dresden, the classical new buildings cost 3-5% more than if they built hideous modern buildings.
@@JohnFromAccounting I'd hazard a guess and say the need to sources stones that "look" like what people want alongside additional designs would require craftsmanship that many building companies may be unwilling to pay for. Since it looks like more companies are catching on that people want a mix of modern and contemporary. So here in Adelaide at least, a lot of newer developments for apartments and office buildings are keeping the facade of some buildings while hollowing them out to build something brand new while touching up what's left. Crafts aren't cheap and I would hope they can find it worthwhile to get them paid.
@@JohnFromAccounting This here is what I wish we got. You look at how there was a massive rebuild in Germany post World War 2 with more tasteful architectural style but it's not even lavish or expensive, just simple and feels like a home. Instead Australia builds these apartment complexes that just don't match the vibe of it's surroundings and are incredibly ugly. I think most Australian cities to match its warm climate should adopt medium/high density housing that is common in warmer Mediterranean climates like Spain.
I want that to happen too but the problem is often set back rules and over shadowing. That is why you see so many new apartments set back 5-10m from the road even if they’re only 3-4 stories. Convincing councils to approve developments with right against the footpath or much closer is very difficult due to existing neighbours concerns of lack of sun and overshadowing. 😕
I don't think people of older generations truly realise how much the values and attitudes of young people have changed on this issue. When an entire generation literally can't afford to put a roof over its head, priorities radically change. The idea of entire suburbs being "heritage protected" just seems insanely ludicrous and self-interested.
If there was no heritage protection you would just end up with ugly cities of the lowest denomination full with cheap clad builds and plastic stools on the sidewalks.
Nothing wrong with self interest or wealth being transitioned from parent to child within a commune. What's wrong is popping out 6 kids and living on benefits when you can't even take care of yourself. Everyone needs to harden up and learn to be grateful.
@@williamlevy6964well the birth rate of Australians is below replacement, and going down. Even people who would like 6 kids are having 1 or maybee 2 because it is impossible to clothe and house them properly in the current economy at the time when women can have kids.
It’s frustrating that in regards to long commutes, a lot of people are just told to “suck it up” and put up with 4+ hour daily travel. “You’re not the only one who has to travel that far!” they exclaim. Yeah, but does that make it any more acceptable? NIMBYs truly don’t give a crap about the current generation of adults.
Word gets around about "strata" / body corporate fees. Just in my own social circle, I'm aware of people who've bought into a residential apartment complex, and have been stung for maintenance issues created by parasite Airbnb landlords. Certain common facilities, like elevators and and pools, have significant ongoing costs associated with them. But rowdy Airbnb guests can create real problems, and I've heard horror stories. People jumping up and down in elevators, putting them out of alignment. Glass in a pool requires the entire pool to be drained, cleaned and re-filled. Drunks urinating and defecating in common areas. Unlike hotels with their on-site security, residents are left without a ready remedy, other than to call the police... and the power of police to intervene is limited, unless they actually see a crime in progress. So, sue the Airbnb landlords? You have to find them first. If the apartments are owned by a shell company, good luck.
@@jennytai88 I suspect most of it is a fabrication by someone who thinks airbnb is bringing their apartment values down - usually these people are retired, divorced or have too much time on their hands. I've lived next door to airbnbs for years and none of these issues have ever popped up but I've come across countless morons on body corporates who have an issue with everything from airbnbs, where people put their washing in their apartments, taking photos of "illegal pets" and more.... these idiots just have wayyyyy too much time on their hands, no hobbies, no job and no brains
@@jennytai88 It's a problem for them globally. It's one of the reasons why AirBnB introduced the rating system and rules that extend to no parties, no extra guests etc etc.
Its for this reason that my country (SIngapore) had indirectly banned AirBNB with a law requiring tenants to reside for at least 3 months (this used to be only a guideline before being formalized as law in ~2017, then the gov't proposed letting individual condominiums' managing committees decide whether or not to allow AirBNB, but that proposal was scrapped after the committees complained that they're being given more work to do)
I gave up on living in apartments. People chain smoking inside and on balconies, loud music, rubbish everywhere and no one took the bins out. Not to mention the nightmare that is Body Corporate. I bought a small house and the peace and quiet is wonderful.
I used to live in some great apartments that had good common area features like a pool or gym or both, or a roof top recreation area. But the trash that's allowed to be put up now has no fore-thought about the comfort of living and the need of pleasant places to be in the complex so you don't feel you're boxed into your place. Too many garbage designs are allowed that are less comfortable than your average prison facility. No wonder people don't like apartments in Australia.
Most new apartsments are so tiny, you can't start a family in them. For apartments to take sway, they need to have close to the same floor space as a single story home.
I own a 3 bed apt in a suburb of Sydney with good schools. I get at least 5-6 offers every few months to buy it through the agency that I rent it out through.
I always thought adoption of apartments was one of many many reason why birth rates dropped. I never really looked up dedicated studies. But when I look at drops in births from a country a lot of them seem to be places where apartments were embraced more earlier decades ago. Plus every apartment I personally visit seems like a nightmare to have a family in. They really do need to be much larger. But if they do prices will go up and at that point a single family home would cost the same.
For some reason, once the third bedroom exists, it's suddenly at least 1.5 times the price of a 2 bedroom, usually it's more like double. In the more affordable parts of Sydney, that could be the same price as a detached house.
As an American, particularly from the South, I laugh at the insistent need for a back yard for the kids. Many of the single family homes you showed had next to no backyards to my eyes. They might as well be townhouses. Communal parkland(s) where you can play a good game of football/soccer/rugby and just really run around is the answer.
Keep in mind the images shown are Sydney and Australia is the same size geographically as the contiguous USA, so many of us have grown up on farms or with acreage and now have to live in apartments for work/housing necessity and many of us dream of being able to raise our future children the same way we were. All the comments about "muh older people", not that yours touches on this, is absurd too because I'm in my late 20s and am adamant I will not raise my kids in the city, especially in an apartment as connection to nature and Country is important to me and our family's ancient heritage and to do that means going back rural. I understand immigration comments will also be blasted in an upcoming video, but it's certainly had a very negative impact in some areas because of the design of our housing market. The cap was trippled then it was reversed when so many of us started to question why we are frothing over GDP when so many multi generation tru blue Aussies are on the street homeless.
@@loranoodleas someone trying to buy a home in Sydney currently, older homes often go for a premium, especially if they've been well looked after. New homes only go for a premium if they're finished with style. Australians seem to trust older brick houses more than anything new.
@@beckyeclaire if its anything like America, I don't blame them. A lot of our new homes and built too fast too cheap and have problems. Seems like early 2000s and before were made of better material with more time put into completing them. I have friends who spent close to $1m on a new construction home and have multiple failures
In my adult life I’ve only ever lived in appartments and I enjoy living in them but if I had enough money I think I’d be a bit scared to buy an one, especially a new build. The quality standards are just so so bad and there is little people can do to hold shonky developers accountable. I prefer apartment living and I hope the regulation changes help to improve the quality.
I still own an apartment in Sydney and it just recently changed strata company so I got a new set of by laws sent to me.... No pets allowed unless approved, noise restrictions above and beyond EPA, replacing curtains requires approval, kitchen and bathroom renovations can't be done DIY unless you have builders license and public liability insurance and still needs approval, air conditioning requires approval and must be less than 50db on the external unit with it being installed on the balcony only. Also can't run new electrical because it's cinderblock concrete walls without huge expense.... To get the new kitchen installed I had to relocate an existing power point because it was too close to the bottom of the sink under new code and it cost me an absolute fortune... I hate apartments... But it was all i could afford.
From someone who lived in a apartment for 11 years, and has now lived in a house for 14 years, apartment living needs compromises. You have to be careful about your noise, especially late at night, otherwise there'll be complaints. Even then you can get blamed for noise from others. Once I was blamed for noise from another unit's visitors. Angry note on the door referencing another racial group for being noisy. I added a reply noting it wasn't me as I was sick at time. Knock on door a few minutes later. My first response was "Do I look like a 'racial group' ?`" Unfortunately he had complained to his agent, who complained to the strata, who then threatened me with eviction from my own unit (I was an owner-occupier). This threat was one I wished they carried through on worst renters ever. Kids on welfare, and they were in unit above me. Sleep was rare. Life for them was a party 24x7. I was complaining about their antics to the strata at least every other week. Not to mention the flooding damage they caused by flushing nappies down the toilet, which blocked the sewer pipes. Police were called, by other tenants, every few weeks. One incident where ALL other tenants called the police on them. As one of them was being led away to the police car, someone in another unit yelled "Give him some judicial excess, there'll be no complaints!" It was a great day when they left. The owner spent months fixing the damage from their time. Bins are another issue. It is not uncommon to find your bin filled by someone else. And who puts them out? The residents are supposed to put out their own bins. Shared bins, such as recycling bins, are often filled with non-recyclable rubbish. I ended up putting my bin in my garage spot to stop others from filling it with their rubbish. When I stopped putting the bins out, there were lots of complaints but the strata merely quoted the by-law that people are responsible for their own rubbish and the bins. Bad TV reception which was never fixed. DVDs and downloads became my viewing. And strata fees. I pay significantly less for council rates on a house than I did for apartment rates plus strata fees. I would never go back to an apartment.
In my country 1 of our lawmakers meanwhile has been calling to ban smoking in apartments, since smoke can spread to units above. There've also been some disputes over apartments' by-laws e.g. banning grilles from being installed on outward-facing windows as they're unsightly, but without them, some young children have fallen to their deaths out of these windows. Thankfully newer grilles are thinner but more closely spaced against each other, so they're not as visible. Some apartments may also ban drying your clothes in the balcony for aesthetic reasons, but the alternative is drying in the kitchen yard, which faces inwards in newer apartments instead of outwards again likely for aesthetic reasons, where clothes would dry slower, to the extent that some residents have even dried their clothes at public playgrounds instead. Condominiums & newer public housing also ban you from changing your window frame, probably as the developer wants to preserve a uniform look for the apartments' exterior
When I lived in Sydney in a unit I got stuck putting all the bins out most weeks. If I didn’t do it they would just overflow.Bought a house with acreage on North Coast of NSW. Came home one day to find a note in my mailbox complaining about the dog barking…..I don’t own a dog! The dog in question lived 400m away in the next street. Posted a photo on FB back in the day when I did FB, lots of funny comments, no apology though!
Did you miss maths classes at school? Europe population is approaching 800,000,000 on the same area as Australia. Australia has around 27,000,000 people, i.e. 30 times less than Europe.
In all honesty, I live in an apartment and it's great. Strata takes care of building maintenance, I don't have to lift a finger just pay a quarterly fee. I'm close to a massive parkland, council pool and sports recreation centre shopping centres, and PT for all my living wants and needs. What's not to like?
@74_pelicans totally. Someone puts the bins out and takes them in, and when one recently was damaged (I suspect hit by vehicle) they arranged the replacement with council as well. From my end it's completely hassle-free.
some of the boomers and people who grew up with boomers are just rich and spoiled, housing should be like 30% of the population at max not like 60% like it is here, if they wanted so many houses then why bring in so many people, its not fair.
I live in an apartment. I hate it. I have a neighbour above that plays thumping bass music almost everyday, sometimes late at night or early in the morning, likes to reno at nighttime. Likes to yell and stomp. Am i a nimby?
Qus, are you a nimby? No! People beating their chests proclaiming apartments are great have no idea. It’s not black & white. We are human beings, animals, creatures who desire to be within nature. Apartments or at least large apartment complexes are anything but humane. If we must have apartments, make them with height limits as most of Europe does, make them larger and make them of higher quality. So many are total garbage and as you said you can hear music from your neighbour, these are real issues. I used to hear conversations, sexual activity, arguments, parties, doors slamming, toilet flushes and more whilst living an an apartment I thought was of good quality. You cannot beat living near nature, away from most noise and on the ground. It’s more humane and I’m happier.
I work as a concierge, you're not a NIMBY 99% of inter resident complaints I deal with are noise related. Some are valid like yours with playing music at absurd hours, others complain about people talking, moving around or using their balcony. Soundproofing is the number 1 thing that needs to be addressed for apartments. I will never live in an apartment as long as I can afford to avoid it. A nice peaceful sleep wake up to birds singing beats anything the inner city has to offer. Rather ironically nobody who shits on living in a house in the outer suburbs has ever lived here.
Yes! If all the people in the apartment were considerate decent people who didn't make alot of noise it would be fine. But unfortunately you have to put up with the jerks who like to blast their music at an unecessarily high volume or have parties on their balconies where people are yelling at eachother.
I have no problems with nearby apartment developments, but personally, I would choose the poorly located house over a well located apartment. Apart from the issues noted in the video, one of the biggest drawbacks of strata is that it involves dealing with a lot of people. People who complain about almost anything and often exaggerate it or sometimes just tell outright lies because they don't like you (and the body corporate manager almost always sides with the complainer over listening to both sides of the story and making a just decision). People who don't pay their fees, which results in higher fees for everyone else as the bills still need to be paid (until the place is sold and they are recouped). People who vote against good policy and sometimes for bad policy. One of the biggest issues is that people who live in apartments are often lower socio-economic than the people who own the nearby houses (for obvious reasons - most people who could afford a nearby house would be living in that instead of an apartment), which is why a lot of these issues occur. If this comment makes it sound like I've been burned before, it is because I have. Multiple times. And I know a lot of other people with similar stories.
I`ve lived in two European countries and I can tell you apartment living is fabulous in a high-density city area with all the social and utility facilities that accompany that. I have lived in housing within high density and enjoy that experience also. Unfortunately, residential property in Australia is viewed as an investment, not a home. Australian Strata on apartments has no regulations to ensure ethical practice in quotes and selection of tradies or on the practice of the strata companies unless an individual apartment owner calls in tradies himself and also collects quotes. Hence, the citizen feels he has no autonomy or self-agency to control these expenses and keep them reasonable. In Europe, these services are better regulated including rental tenancy protection. An own home in Australia out in the suburbs with little to no public transport, little to no social and utility facilities and no bicycle lanes for children to get themselves to school, or sport, let alone a piano lesson independently and in safe road conditions is a lonely and barren environment that also demands parents to rely on a car to commute long distances for an hour or more to work each day. This is an undesirable lifestyle and is for most people unacceptable. Also, work hours are longer with no flexible hours or 4-day week standards, fewer safe work practices and leave entitlements than those in Europe. Social cohesion and a sense of responsibility towards one`s coworkers, neighbours and trust is lower than in Europe. A house in a high-density area is unaffordable for most families but so are the apartments!
Agreed, have you ever met a young Aussie who doesn't love spending time in London or New York? It's not just about convenience of density, it's about the lively cultural experience that these walkable cities provide
Serious question, in Europe is this density of living as intense as Australia? I've lived in medium or high density housing for 2 years now and it's just way too noisy from all the people.
@@dingobonza Germany`s population is 3 times that of Australia. The areas in which most of those people live are smaller and this is so because more people choose to live in apartments in or around the centre of their city for a vibrant lifestyle with easy access to all amenities. This leaves green space or forested belts between cities to be travelled through on foot or on bicycle. Cities are mixed development of socially mixed residential and business much more so than in Australia. Some areas can be noisy, more noisy and other streets are quiet. Weeknights from 10 pm are strict quiet hours. Sundays are known as Ruhetag. Children should be kept quiet, no noisy household white goods may be used, and no garden work may disturb the neighbours. Almost all shops and businesses must remain closed. This is a day of rest and your neighbours will call the police if there is a disturbance. Ruhetag is enjoyed by visiting your local church in the morning and most people are out and about involved in outdoor recreational activities such as cycling, trail walking or lake and park strolls. Of course, essential services must be open and some restaurants and bakeries will open for a few hours but the majority of the population enjoys a day of rest. My experience in Australia is that most people have no consideration for others and demand that non-essential services like the ghastly shopping complexes and hardware stores be operational 7 days a week denying many families that one day a week to spend together or in nature or with a good book.
@@noramaddy4409 This seems oddly fascistic. Why should I be told what I can and can't do on my own property? Not being allowed to do my laundry on a Sunday seems absurd. Here in rural Canada we still enjoy a day of rest on Sundays, but we also recognize that not everyone is a Christian who recognizes the Lord's day, not everyone has time during the week to shop, and many people have no problem working on Sundays for extra pay (and those who want can request Sundays off). It's not that Anglo-Americans don't have consideration for others; it's that we put the individual over the collective. Anyone who disagrees with this notion is free to either move somewhere else or start a commune with like-minded people.
@@noramaddy4409 my girlfriend grew up in Paris and said that it is so ingrained into them from an early age as to not make too much noise and disturb the neighbours!
A great video as always, Sharath. I live in an apartment I own & wouldn’t have it any other way (I might feel differently if I had children). One great advantage of apartment living you didn’t mention: I don’t have to spend half my weekends mowing the lawns and doing the gardening. No thanks! I don’t begrudge other people’s hobbies but gardening is of rather small interest to me. I think a cultural aversion to apartments is an Anglophone thing rather than a specifically Australian thing, even the UK has far fewer apartments than the Continent. I visited Iceland a few years ago. Like Australia, a very low density country with huge open spaces. I was amazed to see that, while most Icelanders live in detached houses, even in the small towns you’ll find plenty of apartments for people who don’t want or need a yard. I wish Australian country towns would offer people that choice too.
I think in the case of Iceland maybe it’s just easier for them to provide heating solutions during winters and all other amenities more efficiently and therefore more affordable to live.
Ive lived in Vietnam for 2 years, the average width of a house is about 4 meters wide, doesn't feel cramped when the ceiling is 4 meters tall. Doesn't feel cramped when the apartments are designed well.
Lived in an apartment in Sydney, poor design with little privacy, you could hear all your nieghbours. Apartments in Singapore are so much better, better windows, thicker walls and have communal areas you actually use.
The new exurb developments in Sydney aren't even big houses any more, they all barely count as 3 bedders and they're stuck within a meter of each other. To think of the space that could have been saved if they just built apartments instead
So very true, it just shows how much people don't want to be stuck dealing with the fess, mess, bureaucracy and BS of strata / body corporate. We need a something new.
High density needs to be within walking distance to high quality public transport and shops. Otherwise it becomes high density urban sprawl where residents need cars. The exurbs need to be low density until public transport is improved and zoning can change.
As someone with a family, on average to lower incomes, I’d be fine with (and likely can only afford to) buy an apartment. But my complaint is how bloated apartment costs can be too. You’re not buying land, you’re not usually buying the desirability of a nice suburb (at least where I live older nicer suburbs tend to have 0 unit blocks) and yeah, build quality isn’t necessarily great. Plus no room to expand if your family does. In other respects I’d prefer a unit. I don’t really want to have to maintain a garden and don’t mind having less rooms to clean or fill with junk.
Eventhough "no one wants to live in an apartment" if you asked those that are currently living in an apartment they would say it's not their preferrence but with limited options available, apartment is all they have
Who doesn’t want to live in a freestanding property given the choices? It all comes down to money. Even billionaires in Hong Kong want to live in freestanding houses if they have that kind of money to purchase it.
Nah, I've lived in apartments since 2017 as a renter then as an owner. I like not having to mow a lawn, don't have to worry about putting out the bins, I get a pool that I don't have to clean. The odds of me being burgled are diminishingly small. It also allows me to live in a great location with train station, shopping centre, a lake and a regional park all a few minutes walk away.
I love living in an apartment. It's a nice small space that is much easier to maintain and I'm walking distance of all kinds of shops and transit. This spot is occasionally noisy but you do get used to it and it's much better than the suburban back water I grew up in.
@@haha-eg8fj If living in a freestand property also come with a gardener, someone to fix issues and is close to public transports, oh and a cleaner because I don't want to deal with cleaning too many rooms. All for under 50-60% of my income, then great, sign me up. Living in a freestanding property just sounds like time and money. Time I rather spend doing things I enjoy, and money I rather spend on holidays.
Australians dont hate apartments, Apartments just don't represent value when compared to other types of dwellings, if they were priced accordingly or if the tax structure incentivized quality apartments over land inefficient big block houses then the price value proposition may be titled more in the favour of apartments. The problem is the market is not free but distorted
@@MichaelTavares no like any other product housing also is an instrument of utility . The price associated to it just quantifies its value at a given point of time. The financial cost of a dwelling is not only the sticker price you agree to pay but also the associated ongoing operational costs ie taxes, rates, strata , insurance, finance etc etc.
It's a conundrum for sure. I reckon the the Federal Governments negative gearing tax laws have a lot to do with housing affordability as it encouraged people buying more properties for tax breaks etc. There must be loads of houses around the country that are vacant from overseas investors parking their money here as well. I believe that this is a major par of what is causing all housing being way overpriced, making any property purchase out of reach for anyone just starting out. And we all know, the banks and real estate agents love the profit....
The tax incentives to the individual/family are nowhere near as beneficial as they are made out to be media/social media. Even if they were repealed, it's not going to make a flood of investment properties flood the market, may only effect new investment purchases and those with high borrowing costs. Your 2nd point may have merit, but again the volume would be nowhere near what it is made out to be to make a dent either...
I think linking the comments comparing Sydney to Hong Kong has more to do with Hong Kong being the worlds most densley populated city rather than the race of people. Furthermore, you compared it to London which is mostly low rise apartments which is different to what we are seeing. FWIW, I live in an apartment and am happy with it however, things that frustrate me, lack of outdoor space ( I would love a grass area) and lack of parking (My block of 20 apartments has 1 parking space per apartment and most of my neighbours park their additional cars in visitors or in the common areas. I would love for Sydney to be more like Tokyo (My favourite city) with quality public transport, walkable areas and high quality housing.
With the cost of the mortgage plus the cost of the body corporate being equal to or even greater than the cost of a free standing home, why would anyone buy a unit.
Heritage architecture is a pillar of the strength and appeal of any city. You can build apartments on empty lots, or tear down some awful modernist building and build a bigger one there.
They also need to get rid of a lot of red tape that is stopping denser housing being built. We don't want to end up like the US, with their obsession over R1 zoning. Although I do think that the further a piece of land is from public transport, shops, and other infrastructure, the lower the height limit should be. That way, growth is guided to where it can do the most good, more people use public transport, shops have more customers, and less money is spent on infrastructure per person.
I live on my own in a 2 bedroom apartment, and for the most part, I like it. The location is not the quietest, but I hope to move to somewhere more quiet in the future. One of the best things about being in an apartment, at least for me, is having to think carefully about the things you buy, and how much stuff you accumulate. Even in this apartment I have way too much space to store all the stuff I am interested in, only to turn around and give a lot of it away a few years down the track. :) I try and be as quiet as I can, although this is annoying when one wants to crank up music. Headphones just don't cut it. :)
When it comes to urban living there are issues that people rarely bring up or gloss over - like urban illness, increase in mental illness, the extra pressure environmentally commercial farming creates when individual households are not producing their own, the increase in water usage in urban environments, inefficient sewer and waste management that urban environments over create and the decrease in ethical decision making in communities larger than 200 members. All of these things are backed up scientifically and should be a part of a serious discussion.
I currently own and live in a 3 bedroom free-standing home with a small backyard. I would be perfectly happy living in an apartment with amenities (no outdoor maintenance is also a big incentive) if they were big enough. The problem is for me, the ones that are big enough are way too expensive and the ones in my price range are way too small.
I don't think home & contents insurance comes close to strata or owner's corporation fees. For starters, no one is forcing you to have home insurance. ~$1900/YEAR for a house in NSW (2024) is a lot less than $1500 - $2000/Quarter (and even more than that, especially if the admin doesn't plan properly for major works). On top of that, you have to pay regardless...even if you don't use the amenities within the complex.
@@zzz-pe3mp Depends on the size of loan, if the loan is covered by the price of a lot under the house, the bank doesn't care if a building is insured or not, except the first year, as they need a proof the building is compliant with building standards before approving a loan.
@@test143000 the insurance company isn't checking your house to make sure its compliant with building standards before issuing a policy and most traditional lenders in Australia will still make you get insurance if there is a residential building on the lot regardless of the loan value
When talking about strata, you only mentioned cost. There are also issues of governance; not only voracious Strata Management companies, but all the problems of incompetence, back-biting, rorting, and politicking you find in local councils with none of the counterbalancing.
@@307pdl They have cracks and defects all over the world. It inherent to the design of apartments. It's not that other countries don't have issues, it's that people adapt to the conditions they are in.
@@307pdldo they? I argue that apartments in suburbia make us stressed and make us live like hermit crabs. Most major cities have massive problems with low birth rates because the environment they live is not conducive to building families. A sense of community and a sense of place- apartments will never provide these things. We are at the early stages so the data is not massive but the small data that is available it’s damming.
@@307pdl because the developers here have taken over building inspections- in many areas there is no independent oversight- so the cowboys come in, do a cheap job so the price out the good builders and leave terribly built apartments in their wake... then go into voluntary liquidation so they can't be sued, start up a new business and start the process all over again.
I don't understand the obsession with living in a detached home, especially in new suburbs that are literally gutter to gutter and have only a tiny backyard strip. It's an apartment, without the benefits of living centrally. I think we should all pitch in to buy Sharath a new wallabies hat.
No strata fees and more freedom to do what you want with your home. I am pro apartments, but I also think single family homes have their place too, but maybe not on tiny blocks with no vegetation.
I found this so stupid of older Australians who think apartments are shit. MY DREAM is to live in an apartment, as a current uni student who grew up in regional australia (Cooranbong Lake Macquarie if anyone was wondering) was so detached it was a 30 min drive to the closest shopping centre. I really really like the convenience of just walking a few minutes to quickly grab something from when i had a trip in Melbourne city centre.
I second this, as a kid I've always wanted an apartment, and my parents would tell me I'm wrong for wanting it. Am I wrong for liking small cosy spaces that are super convenient? They're also high up with great views which I love.
ill also add that, you can have kids in an apartment. even in a detached house i had to share a room with a sibling for 15 years of my life. a small 2 bedroom would in theory accommodate the ability to have 2 kids share that room. a nice backyard was nice but was always kind of boring because there was no one to interact with in said backyard, atleast a park on the ground floor has kids to make friends with. @@johnsontan345
This is hilarious, I moved out of Sydney 2 years ago to the area you left and absolutely love it. What do you term a shopping centre? Cooranbong is only a few minutes away from Morisset which has 2 shopping centres. If you mean a huge Westfield type mall then I had a half hour drive to the nearest one when I lived in Sydney. Cooranbong has public transport, something else I didn’t have in Sydney where it was a 30 minute drive to the closest train station where the parking was a nightmare. A bus to the station or to anywhere else would have been nice of course - but there wasn’t one. Even the school buses were ridiculous, they didn’t get to the school to pick my kids up until half an hour after school finished and to catch them to school required being at the bus stop at 7:45 a.m when school started at 9:00 a.m. school was 7 km away a mere 12 minutes by car. Here the bus stop is opposite my house. It’s lovely living in “regional” Australia.
As someone who lives on Level 4 of a nice new building in Braddon, I do almost all of my shopping at either Jamison Plaza or Majura Park. Sure, there's a new tobacconist downstairs that also sells milk (and eggs - if you don't mind them being refrigerated - heresy!). But the closest supermarket is quite a walk away, and carrying groceries sucks. Driving out to the suburbs to do shopping, with the free parking and better prices, just comes naturally.
I don't like apartments because they're often poorly constructed and are targeted at people without families. But I do like townhouses, especially Victorian townhouses. It's super easy to increase density dramatically, while keeping the "quiet suburb" feel of an area with townhouses. They're not even particularly expensive to make, although sometimes illegal because of idiotic building codes.
Poor construction is a legit concern despite the poor quality of houses. Its alot easier to manage the claims/rectification for house defects vs having to discuss in strata and there is far less cost to resolve a major house defect (even taking into account spreading costs between owners). Until more accountability or better guarantees in resolving defects with builders is available to apartment buyers it will be hard to convince people to by a new build apartment over a shit house with a longer commute. I get what you are saying though - I like the idea of being closer to the city and if an apartment was of good quality or came with a guarantee + set process for resolution of defects, was the right size and reasonably priced compared to a free standing house I would choose it for sure. Unfortunately the is a limited supply of good quality well maintained large older apartments so the cost is quite high!
the quality of apartments in australia is horrendus - thats the biggest fear what protection do you have with the biggest $$$ spend in your life. we are seeing it everywhere and the quality control process is just not evident
Owned and lived in both. So happy to have sold the house and moved to a city unit. Hated gardening, the damn lawn mower, gutters, pool maintenance.. and by 5pm everything was dead in the suburb. what a waste of life!! Prefer paying 12k a year in strata but be in the middle of the city where it’s alive. No backyard? Darling Harbour, Hyde park. Kids can run around as much as they like. Go to the basement for gym, pool, spa, … then walk out late at night for a snack or a glass of wine. Can’t even compare that with boring suburban living when neighbours compare types of lawns, and discuss retaining walls 🤮
I actually really love apartments I want to live in one they seem so nice, especially because a lot of them I see are located near easily accessible transport methods and apartments normally have nice amenities. 💗
@@DatsunBloke7357 The thing is though, thats perfectly fine. We get a problem when we try to mix urbanism with ruralism and you end up getting the worst of both worlds - suburbs
@@kimjong-un8543 It only takes one bad neighbor to learn the lesson, one example someone knocks on your door with a sledgehammer because you left a window open in the hallway, the world is full of Nuts and there is no making friends with Nuts, they are not happy people. Try living next to one and you will quickly learn.
I live in Sydney for work, If i could continue my work in the countryside i would. I like peace, quiet and open space, but as a young person i have to start in sydney's tiny and overpriced studio apartments. The issue is with affordability, not necessarily availability. A nice apartment in sydney is just as rediculously priced as a nice house in the suburbs. Most of us can't afford either of them and therefore live in tiny or old poorly maintained properties in less then ideal areas.
I partially agree, but think you missed the point, for affordability we need supply, and the only thing stopping us from building more apartments is our culutural reluctance, look at the RBA Paper form Peter Tulip and his collegagues. Apartments are estimated to be overpriced by up to 60% in some area and on average 40% due to supply limitations from NIMBYS, like heritage locking up entire suburbs, and billion dollar infrastructure (i.e. Haberfield, Dulwich Hill etc)
I understand apartments, Ive lived in one, I grew up in the suburbs like most of us have, but now almost hitting 40 years of age, I decided to sell up and move out to a rural area and live on 10 acres, and absolutely love it, love the privacy, the wildlife, the fresh air. I have to drive alot further for work, but it is 100% worth it. People sacrifice where they live for convenience or being close to work, to sacrifice peace and quiet, and serenity, which seems insane.
The progress that you talked about is backfiring. We had a quote for a 15k repair before the new regulations, now its 150k after engineering and paying into the insurance fund scheme. Our strata fees have also gone up 70% due to insurances and other increased costs. Then there are the special levies. Our building is one of the best quality apartment buildings in the area. I was pro-apartments until recently. There is one new apartment building down the road that is 50% vacant, has outstanding repairs, they can not afford rectification under the new scheme and the people that took out huge mortgages for brand new luxury apartments are facing negative equity.
Australians would want to live in Apartments if they built them big, strong and with great design like they are in some European countries. Here in Australia they are tiny depressing things and most built in last 10 years have shoddy constructions and are sure to drain your finances and make you poor in the future! If your going to buy one get one that's built in mid 70's. They were big and solidly built.
I’m not sure this is all entirely correct- a lot of the older apartments are also small, and/or have ‘more space’ but it is configured in ways where it is not very useful for the inhabitants (Eg. a lot of corridor, but small bedrooms or no laundry). The NSW apartment design guide, established minimum sizes, to try and legislate for improved liveability etc in 2015- and this has gone some way to improving the design quality of new apartments coming to market.
@@caitlin7932very true. We could build 4-5 bedroom apartments (many of us work from home and need a bedroom or two as an office) making them good for families. If there were plenty of options, prices will come down.
Hard truth is i don't think most of us are ever going to be able to afford to buy a house, even in outlying areas. We need the govt to help. People's mental health is also affected being stuck in small apartments unable to live anywhere else due to personal circumstances 😢
Stuck in Sydney because I was born here and the family is here. If I move to save money I will lose my support system and my job so fuck me right? 🤷♂️
Strata isn't always the reason people are driven away, its when someone buys into it, and realises there is a special levy equivalent to another mortgage. It also comes with less security. A simple flimsy door is the only thing stopping your neighbour from breaking into your apartment from the hallway. Not to mention, you have By-Laws that force you to stay quiet, so you don't have other freedom to play bit of music in your place, along with Special By-Laws stopping you from simply changing the flooring without the Owners Corporation's approval. This can lead to another costly fee.
I think duplex is the best of both worlds not mentioned in the video. Especially near bankstown council. Lots of affordable ones near new plus no strata. And has decent backyard. Some with pool
Bett3r than duplex is a grañny flat. Two houses one set of rates and no DA required. Every property owner should invest in it. I think that granny flat should be the future. Increase the level of cheep housing for young families and gives low entry to investing for more established families(instead of developer mates of our politican class)
I live in a strata complex where the land lot size is approximately eight single detached home lots, where each lot is typically 50ft x 100ft = 5000 sqft (~500m^2), so multiply that by 8 and you have 40000 sqft or 4000 m^2. For reference, one single family lot can easily fit a two-story 5 bedroom home with a balcony, with a front and backward with driveway space for two cars. This 4000 m^2 lot serves about 80 strata lots (80 homeowners), each having either a 2 bedroom in the low-rise apartment or a 3 bedroom townhome. That's a difference of 72 homeowners that won't have a home if this was demolished and turned into solely single family homes. The city can collect taxes from 80 homeowners as opposed to 8 homeowners in this current position, which will fund infrastructure and city services more efficiently. Of course, you can densify even more beyond three stories, but even having low rise complexes already improves the lack of housing choices when the default (or the only choice) is to build single family homes in many residential zones. Cities should be focusing on better land use - the default braindead way is to build outwards and have no amenities planned in those subdivisions of single family homes, where you force everyone to basically drive 15+ minutes to the nearest amenity. I've seen some pictures of subdivisions where the homes are close enough that I can touch my neighbour's home from a window. Cities should also be focusing their efforts in developing alternative transportation options that aren't using private vehicles near the amenity hotspots. There is a different between 100% of trips outside of the home using a private vehicle vs 70% or even 80%. These trips could be grocery runs, pharmacy, and even going to and from school. If you're lucky enough, even commuting to work. If you can get it down to that much, you just reduced 20% of private vehicular traffic.
If houses were as affordable as apartments, I think most people would prefer to live in houses. Afterall there have been so many quality / defect issues from apartments in recent years that really put a huge question mark over their quality. Then there's the issue of expensive strata as you mentioned. I live in a suburb in the inner west of Sydney that has seen a massive increase in high rises over the last 10 years. We have public transport, train stations, buses, metro stop that will open in the next 10 years. Yet the roads are getting more and more congested and nothing has been make traffic flow better. Live here for a month and you'll understand why it's so problematic.
Apartment building standards are too low in Australia, for example there is no noise insulation requirement. The other main issue is poor build quality and strata levies. Apartments are built for foreign investors not locals.
The big problem with apartments is they only build the short, squat ones which really do ruin the area. The need to build apartments the way they do over in Rhodes and Wentworth point. Not cheap, ugly, three storey brick shoebox monstrosities, but 50+ storey modern skyscrapers with 4+ bedrooms, enclosed balconies and surrounded by beautiful gardens, with a seperate storage area in the basement and at LEAST two vehicle spots. Don't build 'apartments', build stackable houses.
Two vehicle spots? Forget that. If it’s right near a really good transport connection zero parking spots. Otherwise you’re just dumping hundred of cars into an area. Horrible
Even apartments blocks in Rhodes are not very well designed. There are very few convenience stores in the area, and not enough events. Most events are in parramatta or in the city. If there is a tech park or a HQ of some giant international company it would be totally different. But now it’s just a town for a bunch of international students.
2 cars per apartment for every apartment is excessive. Most apartments, especially the tall ones, are zoned to be around transport hubs and corridors anyway.
I hear banks won't lend to people buying in Rhodes. Also, it's built on one of Sydney's most toxic sites. I wonder if the people living there know what they're living on.
Australia isn't running out of room. There's massive room across the continent. The problems are that there is insufficient incentive (jobs, preferably a mix from low-average paying to well paying, and insufficient infrastructure, businesses, shops, recreational facilities) for hubs outside the big cities to attract people in numbers and grow. One option might be to split some states in two, requiring new capital cities which would have intrinsic growth and investment incentive.
While I don't mind apartment as a lifelong bachelor, my biggest gripe with apartment is definitely strata, especially when it comes to an older apartment. The cost of fixing common property also includes other units roofing and windows, which could cost 5 digits in thousands. I'm not against an apartment as anything from 60-90m2 is sufficient for a single bachelor, although I'm not keen to see more suburbs turning into apartment/flat-packed suburb like Mascot.
Yes all new apartments being built assume buyers are single who only use public transport and only eat out or socialize by going out, thereby justifying incredibly limited visitor carparking spaces, tiny kitchens and entertaining areas. Basically only a step up from a prison cell.
The biggest challenge is largely a PR issue as you summed up, because if there was a good public opinion on apartment blocks there would be more demand and therefore supply to follow. But you raise good points about heritage listed suburbs ruining part of that plan. Personally, as a musician with a mountain of gear, I need a house and easy car access for my weekly gigs. But if I wasn’t a musician and there were decent apartments that were pet friendly and affordable, I would be interested as a long term solution
I saw that article in the SMH and had to laugh at the complete disconnect Vincent had from the reality of what's going on. "If you want affordable in Sydney, forget it, just pack up and go live in a small town with no opportunities"
I live in Albury Wodonga and I can tell you with great confidence that even regional cities have problems with how they do urban planning. I'm gonna be a bit biased. But Albury/Wodonga is a great example of an urban area with terrible urban designs. With two very strange intersections and car dependant sprawl. The local Bus network (particularly in Wodonga) is not suitable for most people to use. I usually only use it because I sometimes don't have any other way of getting around but I also prefer to use Public Transport over driving. Telling people to move to regional Cities does not solve the problems the big cities like Sydney and Melbourne have, it's passing the buck to those communities that in many cases will likely not be able to provide the same services that the big cities have. I personally would like to do an urban planning course, but my local unis don't provide any urban planning courses, so I'll have to go to Sydney, Melbourne or even Brisbane to do the course I'd like to do.
Albury-Wodonga, has good urban design, look at the incorporated and integrated parklands throughout the suburbs, the park lands sit at the lowest points, so you have dispersed trees and great drainage through the suburb (as the sewers and stormwater infrastructure can run unimpeded down and through parklands) Sounds like your issue is with the frequency of buses and it's timetabling. Air you grievances with the council.
First of all, the state government runs the local bus services in Wodonga, not the local council, secondly, the local council and the local bus operator have been advocating and even the local MP have been advocating for better bus services in Albury/Wodonga, including most infamously, a route to the suburb of Killara. I'm mainly talking about the design of our city centres and our neighbourhoods, I personally think the Albury CBD has the best city centre design in Albury/Wodonga, people always gravitate there because it has everything and it's easy to walk around the CBD and the carparks are away from the main centre. Wodonga has improved in recent years but still suffers from having lots of carparks near the CBD. Lavington's CBD is terrible and requires navigating through a carpark to get to any small businesses.
First of all, the state government runs the local bus services in Wodonga, not the local council, secondly, the local council and the local bus operator and even the local MP have been advocating for better bus services in Albury/Wodonga, including most infamously, a route to the suburb of Killara. I'm mainly talking about the design of our city centres and neighbourhoods, how friendly they are to people who don't own a car. We are still building houses for cars away from the public transport catchment area, interestingly and the past decisiond of governments have made it pretty clear in regards to who is prioritised first.
$800k for a dog box apartment made of cardboard, it's not Vincent's fault, he's worked his arse off. See the guy with the fancy ute towing a jet ski? He built that apartment block that's falling down, his mates in council allowed him to not provide sufficient parking or green space and he's laughing at all of you
If you watched the video, you'd see that a Millenial or Gen Z who worked just as hard their whole life as Vicent did and doing the exact same job he did, would be completely unable to home in the same nice suburb as him. In fact, they'd struggle to own a house anywhere in Sydney. So we should deny younger people who work their arse off the chance to own a home in Sydney, because older people like Vicent don't want to see any change. How's that fair?
My thought, so many different generations in our city’s seem to have lost the ability to be Respectful of others, be empathetic and mindful of other peoples lives. People who have worked extremely hard, saved their wages and purchased their homes to provide for their families are being denigrated because they want to continue to live in the homes that were paid for with their blood , sweat, tears and extremely long hours. SO NOT RIGHT AND SO NOT FAIR. Why do people think it is fair for the. To give up all they have struggled to obtain because others want to demolish communities, parks end the environment built to provide adults and children with a beautiful place to live. Its time to take a look at how and why we are trying to replicate Bee Hives and Ants Nests suburbs, rather than tree lined wonderful communities bringing joy and happiness to those that live and grow there. Shame on making people responsible for the mistakes and lack of foresight of all levels of Government , especially the Planning Departments. Get out of your cars and walk through some of Sydneys amazing historic suburbs , and feel the energy, fresh air and beauty of the building and ask yourself how you can despise those living there for not wanting to loose their homes to high rise building, lack of parks, trees and green spaces. Just because you want to live close to your office what right do you have to kick people out of their homes ?? Shame!!!🙏🏻😢
If no one is having babies in the west and everyone lives alone then there is no market for big houses. Those days are over. In Finland they just built lots of 1 bedroom apartments. And some 2 bedroom apartments because some people living alone need a home office. There is still market for mini houses. Some singles like to have a garden. But nobody needs a house with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms anymore. Because there's no kids.
Nice video! I almost laughed when you said Australians came off as ‘subtly’ racist when talking about apartments (or public transport for that matter). You are too kind! Maybe it’s hard to feel over TH-cam comments, but in person many Australians show literal disgust at the idea of living in an apartment and “being like *insert Asian city*”. They 100% believe that Australia is better than anywhere else, owing to the fact they are on an isolated island where they don’t have to recognise the things going on in the world around them. Thankfully I feel like things are slowly changing with younger people 🙂.
I dont know. I was having a conversation about how expensive property was to buy in Sydney with a friend in their late 20s/early 30s. I said you can get an apt. She looked at me with disdain and said "I dont want to live in an aparmtment!!"
Strata sucks. High levies. Cant do major works without a bylaw. Poor build quality. Neighbour has building issues, everyone foots a bill. How about if you need repairs? Have to go through OC for approval. How about renos? Need to get OC approval and bylaw. Shoebox size, expensive, annoying neighbours. Cant install solar, cant install ev chargers in basement cause crying karens about fire hazards. I can give u a thousand reasons. I will never live in strata again.
I live in the Blue Mountains and I know of 1 person who owns 30 AirBnB properties. That is 30 family homes that have been taken out of the market for 1 persons greed. They are not even rented out to families to live in full time. That is disgusting in the housing crisis world. The area isn’t zoned for hotels so why are AirBnB’s allowed to operate in residential areas. They increase demand and push up prices of other rentals. AirBnB’s should not be allowed. If you have your own personal holiday home that is okay because you are not making an income from it. The law should be changed that a rental property for income has to be full time and not leased out for a few nights here and there for holiday makers. If this was changed how many properties would be opened up around Australia for people to live in.
Is this persons properties in the Blue Mountains? Because I am relocating to that area soon for work and cannot find a small place to rent at all. There is alot of job demand in my field but nowhere to live for single persons. Plenty of airbnbs but almost no 1 bedroom rentals. I know it's popular for tourism but come on. It makes no sense, where do they expect people who work in the community to live? That's the problem with airbnb is they usually renting small places that single people who WORK need! Not everyone is married yet with a double income to buy a house.
6:23 yeah, all those excuses are copium. A well designed suburb with apartment blocks should have ample green space for kids to play as well as shops and public transport.
As someone who returned to Oz from Hong Kong in the 80s as a kid, and who considers Hong Kong his second home, I’ve watched in dismay as Sydney has slowly become more like Hong Kong, the wide blue sky slowly disappearing behind these edifices. Whatever the realities of overcrowding, it’s still sad to see. Strata nightmares, ironic loss of community by living closer together, not to mention the feel of apartments in covid are real turnoffs. I suppose this creep is inevitable, but they shouldn’t sell apartments as something better than a house - a flat is essentially a settling for less, packing more into less and you sacrifice certain things in doing that.
I lived in a unit/condo/townhouse whatever you call it for 7 years now The people here are friendly but they always want to talk. I’m autistic and need to be left alone. And I want more than a few square meters of garden. Strata always has some lunatic on the committee who needs to feel like a dictator. Strata fees here are closer to 7%.
You should check out suburbs like Kensington in Melbourne. I think it s a great example of density done in a way that fits Australian sensibilities. It's mostly 3-4 story apartments or townhouses. If you look at the neighborhood blinded by epsom road and Kensington road and the maribynong river you'll see plenty of townhomes surrounded by parks. It's super family friendly and if more suburbs in Australia where like this housing would undoubtedly be more affordable.
lol at first you were talking about Kensington in Sydney and almost fainted. It is exactly opposite of everything you described!! I actually found many suburbs in Melbourne seemed to have a good mix.
Having lived in apartments across Asia the thing which really struck me was how flimsy Sydney apartments were built. Those build in Sydney before 1996 are very sold, being all brick and concrete, although in Sydney almost all windows prior to the 1950’s are very cheap and poor quality. I found Sydney apartments built after 1996 very noisy. Noise from neighbours could easily intrude because the wall and windows were thin or poor quality. Apartments build after 2000 were often unliveable in summer without air con running all the time. In Hong Kong the apartments, while very small, were solid and if the air-con was not on you could still live in them, even if could get humid. Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Taipei, Shanghai, Bombay were all the same. I must admit in Madras/Chenni you needed the air con on all the time, but that was because it was so humid. Same in Jakarta, Manila, KL and Singapore, but the apartments were still much more solid than post 1996 Sydney apartments. I suspect the reason why Australian’s don’t like apartments is because they are not built to be liveable, only built to be cheap. I must admit many Sydney apartments are large. Build better quality apartments and people may be more happy living in them.
I would happily take an apartment over a house if they got rid of them bluddy body corporate fees. Otherwise I will see how long I can stay at my parents house, save up then eventually rent or buy a house. As for poor quality, it’s often the tradies or contractors if the construction companies taking shortcuts. These shortcuts affect the building’s safety and risk of collapse and affects house, apartments, office buildings, shopping centres, the list goes on really.
Not sure why, but medium density residential builds are perfect. Take a large block of farmland, 200 townhouses with shops and cafe's. Less for strata, larger spaces, small backyards and much more appealing communities. This way you can still have the larger 3 bed room buildings without squeezing everyone into an apartment block. That's a good medium for us.
Housing is fucked, and it's been decades of shit management by government and city planners that have caused this. 1) Quality: I was talking to friends recently and they mentioned that the quality of the build of apartments in other countries are great, properly built apartments are fantastic buy for some reason Australia likes to build shit apartments. They build shit houses too, but you'll hear your neighbours less in a house. 2) Strata: As a poor millennial who has never even been able to contemplate even affording a house I don't know whether rates are the same in an apartment vs a house, but perhaps that is a way to encourage more apartment living, discount rates commensurate with the size of the property? That way strata fees wouldn't be so bad. 3) Immigration: Immigration IS an issue, but not because of immigration per se, but more because we're not building houses in sufficient quantities to allow for higher immigration. Fight me. 4) Transport: Why not build more high speed rail or better public transport? I personally think the best way to solve the housing crisis at the moment is to increase density near the cities with much better standards and engineering from overseas, lean into public transport and incentivize working from home from a policy level. Personally I would love to live in an apartment but the costs associated are just astronomical. I think the only house i'll even be able to rent soon is a tent.
As you mentioned, it's the strata or body corp fees that make me never want to buy or live in an apartment. Fortunately I'm an older guy and bought when land and houses were cheap. Things will not be so easy for my kids although my eldest son is just about ready to move into the house he's having built with his wife and child. He bought this after selling his first property which was a unit. Fortunately he's very hard working and has a decent job. Things may be harder for my younger two boys.
I agree that it is better to build proper apartments around Sydney than cramming duplexes and two story buildings. My area (Canley Heights) is a dichotomy of this. We have a tonne of duplexes but more apartment blocks are being built. The only thing is that council needs to upgrade infrastructure to support the density increase.
I love living in an apartment and if I had my time to do over again it would be the preferred choice from day 1. I hate gardens and gardening, I want to spend my spare time surfing or enjoying the city amenities. I want to be within 15 mins of my workplace, at most 25 mins of work.
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The other problem is pets, like nearly no apartment landlord approves me because of my cat so i gotta go for houses or townhouses 9/10 of the times
but lets not add the part that we have one of the biggest countries in the world and it's deliberately made hard to build outways or buy due to ridiculous prices and zoning laws. its not made for the everyday aussie this system, its created to funnel more money into the international rich. heck we let someone born in England be our prime minister (tony abbott)
Haberfield is beautiful I lived that way on the ashfield side of the highway, it'd destroy the heritage in that specific area not to mention the majority of people living in the city surrounds have no license and are foreigners no Aussie wants to live near the city or in tightly dense areasf Haberfield is small and it's an icon and one of the only untouched areas of Sydney, you need to understand how things were to enjoy the future.. you're speaking for yourself and none of the aussie people. we do not agree with Wollongong University. I'd rather own a cheap home towards the blue mountains, but that cheap house doesn't exist because of intense levels of immigration over the last thew years. 10 years ago owning a western Sydney home was within reach, 24 years ago owning a house in Western or South West Sydney was more then within a realistic goal set. But if Orange ECT was actually cheap id go their in a heart beat but the town i am from in far north QLD still is 500K-800K median house price, so how again is that affordable, an affordable house is impossible in Australia and it's because of foreigners or politician and hedge funds/businesses investing/or even the trumps and obamas and Clive Palmers of the world that wanna own everything and all wealth. we have being reduce to nothing but a renters class by purpose
@@aussienovax And Julia Gillard was born in Wales.
@@aussienovax The issue of pets in Strata has two parts to it:
For owner occupiers - the rules a lot easier now, you can have a pet in an apartment and there’s legislation that prohibits any ByLaw to stop this or from a strata committee from refusing your request.
However, the same is not true for tenants living in apartments where the ban on pets has come directly from the landlord, as they probably stipulated ‘NO PETS’ on their ad, and then it gets written into the lease. I personally think this sort of blanket rule shouldn’t be allowed either, however I do see it from both sides as landlords do worry about the damage (esp a dog) could create on flooring/carpet etc.
@@bennyboost yeah I lease. Shocked me how many people rejected my application only because I owned a cat. I don’t apply for property that say no pets allowed.
I entirely understand dogs, dogs make so much damage lol. lil dummies sometimes, my mates dog ran through a Gyprock wall so I don’t blame landlords in that regards, but idk I am a strong believer in if your pet makes the damage you just fix it or even if a landlord said okay I’ll charge you more bond I’d find that to be a fair addition if it could be legally done but obviously the question is how many people would try to scam that system and claim their own damages. Not all ingoing and outgoing inspections are perfect or More of direct leasing through the landlord
I believe the retirement crisis will get even worse. Many struggle to save due to low wages, rising prices, and exorbitant rents. With homeownership becoming unattainable for middle-class Americans, they may not have a home to rely on for retirement either.
Consider buying stocks when the economy is not doing well, like during a recession. It could be a chance to buy them at a lower price and sell later when prices go up. Just keep in mind, this isn't financial advice, but sometimes it's better than keeping a lot of cash.
If you lack market knowledge, your best bet is to seek advice or support from a consultant or investing coach. Contacting a consultant may sound simple, but it's how I've managed to stay afloat in the market and increase my portfolio to roughly 65% since January. It is, in my opinion, the best way to get started in the industry right now.
Mind if I ask you to recommend this particular coach you using their service?
'Sonya Lee Mitchell, a highly respected figure in her field. I suggest delving deeper into her credentials, as she possesses extensive experience and serves as a valuable resource for individuals seeking guidance in navigating the financial market.
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps! Says the boomer who bought his house for the price of 7 potatoes in 1986 and its now worth 2.9 million dollars for some reason.
I don't see housing prices falling much until the supply is increased. In the USA we are short millions of housing units, and we aren't building nearly fast enough. People always need a place to live and we are constantly making new people. Any slight dip in prices unlocks a bunch of buyers who will gobble up that supply instantly. I want to buy inexpensive houses in 2024 and maybe invest in stocks. When's the best time to buy stocks? Some people say they make money, but others say it's risky. Any advice?
Consider investing in stocks and acquiring gold for potential profits amidst inflation. The retirement crisis may worsen as many face challenges saving due to low wages, inflation, and high rental costs, leaving homeownership out of reach for the middle class.
If you lack market knowledge, your best bet is to seek advice or support from a consultant or investing coach. Contacting a consultant may sound simple, but it's how I've managed to stay afloat in the market and increase my portfolio to roughly 65% since January. It is, in my opinion, the best way to get started in the industry right now.
Mind if I ask you to recommend this particular coach you using their service?
There are many financial coaches who excel in their profession, but for the time being, I employ Sonya Lee Mitchell because I adore her methods. You can make research and find out more
@@crystalcassandra5597 Bot
Living in different cities in Asia, there's definitely a place for apartments in Australia. The problem is we don't know who should live in them or how and where to build them. I love living in a nice apartment and I can just as easily love having my own house on a block to take care of, so it should be about purpose and what is suitable.
I visit my parents in Aus in the suburb I grew up in. The area is still mostly populated by the same people, like my parents, who raised their kids but now live in a house with spare bedrooms and a yard they can't really take care of anymore. The school I went to is now full of empty classrooms. My parents have to drive (only one of them can drive now) to Woolies, drive to the doctor, drive anywhere else and very rarely see anyone in the street. If the area had a main strip of nicely built condos with green space and transport (i mean nice to live in like Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok or Singapore), they could enjoy great lifestyle - a swim in the pool, relax in the garden, walk on a treadmill in the gym, pick up groceries from a shop downstairs, most likely walk to a doctor or just go down the road to get there. If all communities had a mix of housing, and that includes a variety of high density, variety of medium density etc, then people could genuinely choose what fits their lifestyle. Houses with yards should really be for families with kids.
But that brings me to the thing that is never really talked about - Australians don't know how to behave. I'm sure if any of the beautiful high density complexes I've lived in were transplanted to Australia, people would make noise, ruin things, knock things off, etc etc - literally the example of the saying "this is why we can't have nice things". I think it everyday I've lived overseas - how nice it is to have so much convenience, safety, attractive parks and huge public spaces, and then think how back home some deros would deliberately ruin it. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a yard but it shouldn't be the only real option for a nice life.
Australia can do so much better. Those newer suburbs of two storey homes being gutter to gutter, tiny streets where visitors can't park and having to drive just to go buy some milk, is definitely my idea of hell.
Absolutely bang on! 👏
You summed everything I had in my mind but better articulated.
I just commented something similar to this, just moved to a townhouse in the suburbs from a mixed use apartment, I hate going to the shops now or even just going out for a coffee or even going to the doctors and now the city is much farther from me and I don’t go anywhere anymore. Having to drive anywhere annoys me lol, walking downstairs and having everything I need within a 1min walk is insane to me, insanely convenient!
@@chingymofo1 A townhouse in the suburbs sounds like the worst of both worlds.
@@LordVarkson you’re not wrong
Poor construction quality is one of the reasons. Also historical controls on what you can do in an apartment, e.g. own pets - plus bad options for connected services like broadband, TV.. An entire block may be locked into a single out-of-date solution.
I grew up in country towns in houses with big back yards. No one plays sport in them - that's what the parks, playing fields, swimming pools, tennis courts etc were used for.
Precisely.
Who wants to live that close to a neighbour?
And who wants to ask a neighbour every time you want to do any alterations to the outside of your home?
HK, Singapore and other densely populated nations have no choice but to pack people into apartments/flats.
Never mind nations lacking choice. Just take the city of Sydney as a prime example in this country that no longer has a choice. It’s completely landlocked and has nowhere left to sprawl. We have to demolish and infill with higher density accommodation in order to house the growing number of people who want to move here.
@@brlo1973
And a lot of SIN seems to be emigrating Downunder.
I tell the newcomers; don't congregate in the cities.
Go to the country side or nearby coastal towns.
That's the only way to be immerse with the True Blue culture.
G'die Mate.
And strata fees 😳
Newer apartment regulations would stamp out every single concern you have that is well outdated. No strata committee can refuse a reasonable application to keep a pet. I live in a 4 year old apartment with great nbn broadband service. The selfish baby boomers are just in the way of us getting a place to live with your outdated ideologies
As a Sydney unit-dweller, I’m torn.
1. All those new McMansions don’t even get built with backyards anymore. People are living cheek-by-jowl in outer suburbs with no facilities… they may as well live in units.
BUT
2. Let’s not tear down the old, beautiful and only solidly-built houses left in our city for the sake of more Mascot/Opal garbage. I guess Paris, London and Madrid are famous for their beautiful and historic architecture and the way they’ve combined these with modern city life. Surely we can do the same?
Blame the developers for the existence of tiny homes.
Yes, some new regulations would ensure these suburban residential blocks are two meters from the side fence and garden space is planned to provide green space as this helps to lower surrounding temperatures. I also find the housing ugly, fortress-like, and devoid of natural environment habitats for birds and small creatures. Not to mention, those new suburbs are not mixed builds inclusive of social and affordable dwellings with small businesses, workshops and the necessary schools, and recreational facilities.
They are built for investors not for families.@@RUHappyATM
We need to tear down single dwellings and replace them with higher density residences if those single dwellings are located in high amenity areas.
It's just math. Or otherwise, stop voting for parties with Big Australia agendas... which is all the big ones.
Yeah I get that there's racism involved but comparing Madrid to Wolli Creek is a bit of a stretch
"who wants to live side by side shoulder to shoulder"... They should look at the newest suburbs of Sydney and Perth. Those houses have like, 1m between them max.
that's more on the complete failure of urban planning and more money for the builders.
and consequently not a tree to be seen
Yep, you lean too far out your side window and you'll be leaning in your neighbours. You could damn near make coffee in his kitchen without leaving your own house
@@rkwo8152not entirely accurate.
Really had high hopes for this video, but the immature narration and shallow analysis of the issue lets it down significantly. Less emotion and sarcasm and more data to back up your arguments.
I'm sure Vincent is the first to complain about how busy the roads are or how there isn't enough nurses at his local hospital.
And then will ridicule more transit and active transport infrastructure as waste of time and money because everyone drives, then complains about road traffic and how nothings being done, and wouldn’t allow a hospital complex in his suburb, that’s wrong and destroys ‘character.’
To paraphrase Gareth Klieber, if you can get to your local café in 15 minutes, but the barista making your coffee can't afford to live less than half an hour away, then you live in a theme park.
@@PhilRectangle That's genius
I grew up in haberfield and my old primary school has been forced to cull the number of classes in each year, as nobody with primary school aged kids can afford to live there anymore
That's disgraceful. Green voters are the worst NIMBYs: open borders for the country; de facto gated communities for where they live.
Yeah, these NIMBYs are basically creating localised aging populations.
@@bendowson3124in a number of years, there will be a quite a few 'deceased estate' properties popping up on the market.
Not even NIMBY, just greed and refusal to take a price. When every seller demands "above average prices" eventually there will be no sales.
@@bendowson3124 My country is also seeing localised aging population in older, inner suburbs as the gov't had concentrated public house-building in outer, newer suburbs to populate them as rapidly as possible (to justify building more facilities for them), & public housing is popular among younger people when they move out & start a family as its cheaper. So some facilities e.g. swimming pools in older suburbs had been closed down due to declining usership. As for schools, the inner suburbs are home to the more prestigious ones, so maybe these changes in population might ease the competition for them, with people staying nearer getting priority, but people with other connections to the school get even more priority e.g. if you parents were alumni/alumna/members or churches/clans affiliated to the school, or if your sibling studies at the same school. However some prestigious schools have been moved to newer suburbs in our history
I'd love to see an episode on "The Best Apartments in Sydney" highlighting well-designed, well-connected, well regarded apartment developments across the city. Bonus points for developments adjacent to heritage conservation areas, to show the haters that they can co-exist.
The social media discourse around housing typically focuses on the problems, on negatives, so it would be great to have something positive to share in response.
Agree 100%. I'm all for advocating for higher density housing, however the general public needs to see real examples of what we'll designed higher density living could look like. Currently when they hear apartments they think Mascot Towers.
Found Harry Triguboff guys 👆
Nominate some. Do these actually exist? I'd love to see apartments that live up to your description that are bigger than 3 bedrooms.
All built before 2005.....unless one-off architecture build
And then after the "The Best Apartments in Sydney" are built and standing for a few years and then start falling apart who will people sue? With the quality of things these days it is just not worth taking the risk to promote "New" Apartment complexes. I am sure the Heritage people around the "Mascot" are really happy coexisting with their new neighbor.
I saw a reddit thread about YIMBY today. It's painfully clear that older Australians who own their own homes live in a completely different reality to us younger folks. They're in for a rude awakening as more and more young people turn 18 and start voting - housing policy is going to define elections for decades to come.
Haha... So older people are to blame for working hard and buying a house years ago for them and their family to grow in? But when there is enough of you with your way of thinking we are going to use the power of the State and corrupt self serving politicians to get your homes for repurposing and for the benefit of all? Sounds like Communist/Socialist propaganda to me? How about you use your voting rights to elect politicians who will stop profiteering from foreign investors buying up properties, which is one of the biggest causes of the current situation?
Ya but hoas are evil
Just stop voting left
Reddit. LOL
Reddit ,,, WOW I am sure the world runs on reddit comments :)
Not really related to apartments but I hate the current trend of building houses right on top of each other, why can't we just build actual rowhouses/townhouses if we're going to build houses right up to each other!
The council regulates how close houses can be to each other.
@@andychrist2922 So why does virtually every council just coincidentally regulate this in the same way?
Yeah row houses with a firewall so there's no noise pollution. Saves on the heating & cooling bill too. What's the point of the tiny alleyway? Store your rakes? Just have the plots slightly longer & put a shed on it.
@@InnuendoXPcouncil laws regulate how close you can build
I've seen more of those recently but personally would rather see more 4 bed town houses where it's rows of just the two joined together, so everyone gets a side access and nobody shares a wall with more than one other building so soundproofing is much easier. and you can fit in a double garage So many folks need a work from home office and the 3 beds often have two tiny rooms and only one suitable for an adult, plus only one car garage and no storage so they end up not working long term for older kids who are inceasingly staying at home, multigeneration households or folks who want to take on a lodger to help pay a mortgage. Sure you don't get a massive yard but you often get things like a better area, pool and gym or parkland, and all at a much more affordable cost than buying a house squashed next to a neighbour with no yard anyway!
I am an Australian living in the United States and find the housing situation concerning. What I have observed in Australia is there are a few very tall apartments, massive numbers of free standing houses, without a lot of medium density homes. Here in the United States, I am in a nice area and we have a mix of all housing types. We have a lot of apartments but they usually max out at 4 x levels. In my apartment community, we have walking trails, greenery and often see deer roaming around with plenty of space for the little one to play...and yet next door is a big house on a huge block. However, there are a lot of medium density row homes for those looking for something more affordable than a free standing home but not wanting to live in an apartment block. So you will see a lot of these two level row homes and they are very livable for anyone. With this, we achieve a good population density without sky scrapers and good quality of life.
Also they are overpriced the fuark out of there too..
Medium density in Australia equates to townhouse developments.
my parents live in almost exactly what you are describing (except max 5 levels and no deer) but you pay through the nose for it,
except housing is just as bad there
I think there should be a deal made between both Nimbys and Yimbys. Build the apartments but have the exteriors resemble the heritage listed houses, it would be like Sydney's version of New Yorks inner boroughs or the city centres of many European cities. A lot of the issues people have with the new apartments especially in the inner suburbs is that these buildings are all the same modernist design. This has been done before in the Eastern Suburbs like Bondi, surely a similar plan could be executed in the inner west
Would certainly be interesting, I'd also say now you'll need to get builders/financiers/architects involved proper.
Would certainly love to see quality of things improve, not continue to devolve...
Build 6 storeys of charming European styling. It's not even particularly expensive. In Dresden, the classical new buildings cost 3-5% more than if they built hideous modern buildings.
@@JohnFromAccounting I'd hazard a guess and say the need to sources stones that "look" like what people want alongside additional designs would require craftsmanship that many building companies may be unwilling to pay for.
Since it looks like more companies are catching on that people want a mix of modern and contemporary. So here in Adelaide at least, a lot of newer developments for apartments and office buildings are keeping the facade of some buildings while hollowing them out to build something brand new while touching up what's left.
Crafts aren't cheap and I would hope they can find it worthwhile to get them paid.
@@JohnFromAccounting This here is what I wish we got. You look at how there was a massive rebuild in Germany post World War 2 with more tasteful architectural style but it's not even lavish or expensive, just simple and feels like a home. Instead Australia builds these apartment complexes that just don't match the vibe of it's surroundings and are incredibly ugly. I think most Australian cities to match its warm climate should adopt medium/high density housing that is common in warmer Mediterranean climates like Spain.
I want that to happen too but the problem is often set back rules and over shadowing. That is why you see so many new apartments set back 5-10m from the road even if they’re only 3-4 stories. Convincing councils to approve developments with right against the footpath or much closer is very difficult due to existing neighbours concerns of lack of sun and overshadowing. 😕
I don't think people of older generations truly realise how much the values and attitudes of young people have changed on this issue. When an entire generation literally can't afford to put a roof over its head, priorities radically change. The idea of entire suburbs being "heritage protected" just seems insanely ludicrous and self-interested.
Until you get inheritance from your boomer parents and Thier parents.
So who suburbs of houses should be bulldozed to make way for hundreds of thousands of units so we can house 10 million people in NSW? F that.
If there was no heritage protection you would just end up with ugly cities of the lowest denomination full with cheap clad builds and plastic stools on the sidewalks.
Nothing wrong with self interest or wealth being transitioned from parent to child within a commune. What's wrong is popping out 6 kids and living on benefits when you can't even take care of yourself. Everyone needs to harden up and learn to be grateful.
@@williamlevy6964well the birth rate of Australians is below replacement, and going down. Even people who would like 6 kids are having 1 or maybee 2 because it is impossible to clothe and house them properly in the current economy at the time when women can have kids.
It’s frustrating that in regards to long commutes, a lot of people are just told to “suck it up” and put up with 4+ hour daily travel. “You’re not the only one who has to travel that far!” they exclaim. Yeah, but does that make it any more acceptable? NIMBYs truly don’t give a crap about the current generation of adults.
Word gets around about "strata" / body corporate fees. Just in my own social circle, I'm aware of people who've bought into a residential apartment complex, and have been stung for maintenance issues created by parasite Airbnb landlords. Certain common facilities, like elevators and and pools, have significant ongoing costs associated with them. But rowdy Airbnb guests can create real problems, and I've heard horror stories. People jumping up and down in elevators, putting them out of alignment. Glass in a pool requires the entire pool to be drained, cleaned and re-filled. Drunks urinating and defecating in common areas. Unlike hotels with their on-site security, residents are left without a ready remedy, other than to call the police... and the power of police to intervene is limited, unless they actually see a crime in progress. So, sue the Airbnb landlords? You have to find them first. If the apartments are owned by a shell company, good luck.
Why would airbnb guest behave so poorly? That’s bizarre 😢
@@jennytai88 I suspect most of it is a fabrication by someone who thinks airbnb is bringing their apartment values down - usually these people are retired, divorced or have too much time on their hands. I've lived next door to airbnbs for years and none of these issues have ever popped up but I've come across countless morons on body corporates who have an issue with everything from airbnbs, where people put their washing in their apartments, taking photos of "illegal pets" and more.... these idiots just have wayyyyy too much time on their hands, no hobbies, no job and no brains
@@jennytai88 It's a problem for them globally. It's one of the reasons why AirBnB introduced the rating system and rules that extend to no parties, no extra guests etc etc.
@@jennytai88 Cause parties.
Its for this reason that my country (SIngapore) had indirectly banned AirBNB with a law requiring tenants to reside for at least 3 months (this used to be only a guideline before being formalized as law in ~2017, then the gov't proposed letting individual condominiums' managing committees decide whether or not to allow AirBNB, but that proposal was scrapped after the committees complained that they're being given more work to do)
I gave up on living in apartments. People chain smoking inside and on balconies, loud music, rubbish everywhere and no one took the bins out. Not to mention the nightmare that is Body Corporate. I bought a small house and the peace and quiet is wonderful.
Yes, its unfortunate that when you live in an apartment you have to put up with disrespectful and inconsiderate people.
Poor Vincent, just wants to pull the ladder out from behind him, light it on fire and pour the ash on our wheat bix. Let the man live out his dreams
I used to live in some great apartments that had good common area features like a pool or gym or both, or a roof top recreation area. But the trash that's allowed to be put up now has no fore-thought about the comfort of living and the need of pleasant places to be in the complex so you don't feel you're boxed into your place. Too many garbage designs are allowed that are less comfortable than your average prison facility. No wonder people don't like apartments in Australia.
The east coast of Australia needs a fast rail to connect smaller cities with larger cities
Hahahahahahahaha, perhaps we do but it will never be done
Most new apartsments are so tiny, you can't start a family in them.
For apartments to take sway, they need to have close to the same floor space as a single story home.
I own a 3 bed apt in a suburb of Sydney with good schools. I get at least 5-6 offers every few months to buy it through the agency that I rent it out through.
I always thought adoption of apartments was one of many many reason why birth rates dropped. I never really looked up dedicated studies. But when I look at drops in births from a country a lot of them seem to be places where apartments were embraced more earlier decades ago. Plus every apartment I personally visit seems like a nightmare to have a family in.
They really do need to be much larger. But if they do prices will go up and at that point a single family home would cost the same.
You can start a family anywhere, my nan had my dad and uncle, living in a room with an entire other family. Let your kid go outside.
Your screaming kids have no place in an apartment.
For some reason, once the third bedroom exists, it's suddenly at least 1.5 times the price of a 2 bedroom, usually it's more like double. In the more affordable parts of Sydney, that could be the same price as a detached house.
As an American, particularly from the South, I laugh at the insistent need for a back yard for the kids. Many of the single family homes you showed had next to no backyards to my eyes. They might as well be townhouses. Communal parkland(s) where you can play a good game of football/soccer/rugby and just really run around is the answer.
Keep in mind the images shown are Sydney and Australia is the same size geographically as the contiguous USA, so many of us have grown up on farms or with acreage and now have to live in apartments for work/housing necessity and many of us dream of being able to raise our future children the same way we were.
All the comments about "muh older people", not that yours touches on this, is absurd too because I'm in my late 20s and am adamant I will not raise my kids in the city, especially in an apartment as connection to nature and Country is important to me and our family's ancient heritage and to do that means going back rural.
I understand immigration comments will also be blasted in an upcoming video, but it's certainly had a very negative impact in some areas because of the design of our housing market. The cap was trippled then it was reversed when so many of us started to question why we are frothing over GDP when so many multi generation tru blue Aussies are on the street homeless.
I live in an American southern city, like right in it, and I bought a slightly older home so I could get the real yard space
@@loranoodleas someone trying to buy a home in Sydney currently, older homes often go for a premium, especially if they've been well looked after. New homes only go for a premium if they're finished with style. Australians seem to trust older brick houses more than anything new.
@@beckyeclaire if its anything like America, I don't blame them. A lot of our new homes and built too fast too cheap and have problems. Seems like early 2000s and before were made of better material with more time put into completing them. I have friends who spent close to $1m on a new construction home and have multiple failures
In my adult life I’ve only ever lived in appartments and I enjoy living in them but if I had enough money I think I’d be a bit scared to buy an one, especially a new build. The quality standards are just so so bad and there is little people can do to hold shonky developers accountable. I prefer apartment living and I hope the regulation changes help to improve the quality.
I still own an apartment in Sydney and it just recently changed strata company so I got a new set of by laws sent to me.... No pets allowed unless approved, noise restrictions above and beyond EPA, replacing curtains requires approval, kitchen and bathroom renovations can't be done DIY unless you have builders license and public liability insurance and still needs approval, air conditioning requires approval and must be less than 50db on the external unit with it being installed on the balcony only. Also can't run new electrical because it's cinderblock concrete walls without huge expense.... To get the new kitchen installed I had to relocate an existing power point because it was too close to the bottom of the sink under new code and it cost me an absolute fortune... I hate apartments... But it was all i could afford.
Well mate if we build only houses they would cost even more
It's a lot of the same problems a person faces as being in a rental.
From someone who lived in a apartment for 11 years, and has now lived in a house for 14 years, apartment living needs compromises. You have to be careful about your noise, especially late at night, otherwise there'll be complaints. Even then you can get blamed for noise from others. Once I was blamed for noise from another unit's visitors. Angry note on the door referencing another racial group for being noisy. I added a reply noting it wasn't me as I was sick at time. Knock on door a few minutes later. My first response was "Do I look like a 'racial group' ?`" Unfortunately he had complained to his agent, who complained to the strata, who then threatened me with eviction from my own unit (I was an owner-occupier).
This threat was one I wished they carried through on worst renters ever. Kids on welfare, and they were in unit above me. Sleep was rare. Life for them was a party 24x7. I was complaining about their antics to the strata at least every other week. Not to mention the flooding damage they caused by flushing nappies down the toilet, which blocked the sewer pipes. Police were called, by other tenants, every few weeks. One incident where ALL other tenants called the police on them. As one of them was being led away to the police car, someone in another unit yelled "Give him some judicial excess, there'll be no complaints!" It was a great day when they left. The owner spent months fixing the damage from their time.
Bins are another issue. It is not uncommon to find your bin filled by someone else. And who puts them out? The residents are supposed to put out their own bins. Shared bins, such as recycling bins, are often filled with non-recyclable rubbish. I ended up putting my bin in my garage spot to stop others from filling it with their rubbish. When I stopped putting the bins out, there were lots of complaints but the strata merely quoted the by-law that people are responsible for their own rubbish and the bins.
Bad TV reception which was never fixed. DVDs and downloads became my viewing.
And strata fees. I pay significantly less for council rates on a house than I did for apartment rates plus strata fees.
I would never go back to an apartment.
In my country 1 of our lawmakers meanwhile has been calling to ban smoking in apartments, since smoke can spread to units above. There've also been some disputes over apartments' by-laws e.g. banning grilles from being installed on outward-facing windows as they're unsightly, but without them, some young children have fallen to their deaths out of these windows. Thankfully newer grilles are thinner but more closely spaced against each other, so they're not as visible. Some apartments may also ban drying your clothes in the balcony for aesthetic reasons, but the alternative is drying in the kitchen yard, which faces inwards in newer apartments instead of outwards again likely for aesthetic reasons, where clothes would dry slower, to the extent that some residents have even dried their clothes at public playgrounds instead. Condominiums & newer public housing also ban you from changing your window frame, probably as the developer wants to preserve a uniform look for the apartments' exterior
When I lived in Sydney in a unit I got stuck putting all the bins out most weeks. If I didn’t do it they would just overflow.Bought a house with acreage on North Coast of NSW. Came home one day to find a note in my mailbox complaining about the dog barking…..I don’t own a dog! The dog in question lived 400m away in the next street. Posted a photo on FB back in the day when I did FB, lots of funny comments, no apology though!
How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?
@@newellharry176 Me, back when I lived in the unit I was in my thirties.
What about building more cities instead? In Europe the average distance between major cities is about 100 kms. In Australia it’s 1,000 kms.
Did you miss maths classes at school? Europe population is approaching 800,000,000 on the same area as Australia. Australia has around 27,000,000 people, i.e. 30 times less than Europe.
In all honesty, I live in an apartment and it's great. Strata takes care of building maintenance, I don't have to lift a finger just pay a quarterly fee. I'm close to a massive parkland, council pool and sports recreation centre shopping centres, and PT for all my living wants and needs. What's not to like?
best part is you never forget to take the bins out and get the panic on your commute that morning, or running out when you hear the truck coming
@74_pelicans totally. Someone puts the bins out and takes them in, and when one recently was damaged (I suspect hit by vehicle) they arranged the replacement with council as well. From my end it's completely hassle-free.
some of the boomers and people who grew up with boomers are just rich and spoiled, housing should be like 30% of the population at max not like 60% like it is here, if they wanted so many houses then why bring in so many people, its not fair.
Kids need backyards to run around in, climb trees ect.
Can’t do that in an apartment without a parent having to take them to the park
I live in an apartment. I hate it. I have a neighbour above that plays thumping bass music almost everyday, sometimes late at night or early in the morning, likes to reno at nighttime. Likes to yell and stomp. Am i a nimby?
I used to live in an apartment but now live in peace in a home with a nice garden.
😢
Qus, are you a nimby? No! People beating their chests proclaiming apartments are great have no idea. It’s not black & white. We are human beings, animals, creatures who desire to be within nature. Apartments or at least large apartment complexes are anything but humane.
If we must have apartments, make them with height limits as most of Europe does, make them larger and make them of higher quality.
So many are total garbage and as you said you can hear music from your neighbour, these are real issues. I used to hear conversations, sexual activity, arguments, parties, doors slamming, toilet flushes and more whilst living an an apartment I thought was of good quality.
You cannot beat living near nature, away from most noise and on the ground. It’s more humane and I’m happier.
I work as a concierge, you're not a NIMBY 99% of inter resident complaints I deal with are noise related.
Some are valid like yours with playing music at absurd hours, others complain about people talking, moving around or using their balcony.
Soundproofing is the number 1 thing that needs to be addressed for apartments. I will never live in an apartment as long as I can afford to avoid it.
A nice peaceful sleep wake up to birds singing beats anything the inner city has to offer. Rather ironically nobody who shits on living in a house in the outer suburbs has ever lived here.
Yes! If all the people in the apartment were considerate decent people who didn't make alot of noise it would be fine. But unfortunately you have to put up with the jerks who like to blast their music at an unecessarily high volume or have parties on their balconies where people are yelling at eachother.
I have no problems with nearby apartment developments, but personally, I would choose the poorly located house over a well located apartment. Apart from the issues noted in the video, one of the biggest drawbacks of strata is that it involves dealing with a lot of people. People who complain about almost anything and often exaggerate it or sometimes just tell outright lies because they don't like you (and the body corporate manager almost always sides with the complainer over listening to both sides of the story and making a just decision). People who don't pay their fees, which results in higher fees for everyone else as the bills still need to be paid (until the place is sold and they are recouped). People who vote against good policy and sometimes for bad policy. One of the biggest issues is that people who live in apartments are often lower socio-economic than the people who own the nearby houses (for obvious reasons - most people who could afford a nearby house would be living in that instead of an apartment), which is why a lot of these issues occur. If this comment makes it sound like I've been burned before, it is because I have. Multiple times. And I know a lot of other people with similar stories.
I`ve lived in two European countries and I can tell you apartment living is fabulous in a high-density city area with all the social and utility facilities that accompany that. I have lived in housing within high density and enjoy that experience also. Unfortunately, residential property in Australia is viewed as an investment, not a home. Australian Strata on apartments has no regulations to ensure ethical practice in quotes and selection of tradies or on the practice of the strata companies unless an individual apartment owner calls in tradies himself and also collects quotes. Hence, the citizen feels he has no autonomy or self-agency to control these expenses and keep them reasonable. In Europe, these services are better regulated including rental tenancy protection. An own home in Australia out in the suburbs with little to no public transport, little to no social and utility facilities and no bicycle lanes for children to get themselves to school, or sport, let alone a piano lesson independently and in safe road conditions is a lonely and barren environment that also demands parents to rely on a car to commute long distances for an hour or more to work each day. This is an undesirable lifestyle and is for most people unacceptable. Also, work hours are longer with no flexible hours or 4-day week standards, fewer safe work practices and leave entitlements than those in Europe. Social cohesion and a sense of responsibility towards one`s coworkers, neighbours and trust is lower than in Europe. A house in a high-density area is unaffordable for most families but so are the apartments!
Agreed, have you ever met a young Aussie who doesn't love spending time in London or New York? It's not just about convenience of density, it's about the lively cultural experience that these walkable cities provide
Serious question, in Europe is this density of living as intense as Australia?
I've lived in medium or high density housing for 2 years now and it's just way too noisy from all the people.
@@dingobonza Germany`s population is 3 times that of Australia. The areas in which most of those people live are smaller and this is so because more people choose to live in apartments in or around the centre of their city for a vibrant lifestyle with easy access to all amenities. This leaves green space or forested belts between cities to be travelled through on foot or on bicycle. Cities are mixed development of socially mixed residential and business much more so than in Australia. Some areas can be noisy, more noisy and other streets are quiet. Weeknights from 10 pm are strict quiet hours. Sundays are known as Ruhetag. Children should be kept quiet, no noisy household white goods may be used, and no garden work may disturb the neighbours. Almost all shops and businesses must remain closed. This is a day of rest and your neighbours will call the police if there is a disturbance. Ruhetag is enjoyed by visiting your local church in the morning and most people are out and about involved in outdoor recreational activities such as cycling, trail walking or lake and park strolls. Of course, essential services must be open and some restaurants and bakeries will open for a few hours but the majority of the population enjoys a day of rest. My experience in Australia is that most people have no consideration for others and demand that non-essential services like the ghastly shopping complexes and hardware stores be operational 7 days a week denying many families that one day a week to spend together or in nature or with a good book.
@@noramaddy4409 This seems oddly fascistic. Why should I be told what I can and can't do on my own property? Not being allowed to do my laundry on a Sunday seems absurd. Here in rural Canada we still enjoy a day of rest on Sundays, but we also recognize that not everyone is a Christian who recognizes the Lord's day, not everyone has time during the week to shop, and many people have no problem working on Sundays for extra pay (and those who want can request Sundays off). It's not that Anglo-Americans don't have consideration for others; it's that we put the individual over the collective. Anyone who disagrees with this notion is free to either move somewhere else or start a commune with like-minded people.
@@noramaddy4409 my girlfriend grew up in Paris and said that it is so ingrained into them from an early age as to not make too much noise and disturb the neighbours!
A great video as always, Sharath.
I live in an apartment I own & wouldn’t have it any other way (I might feel differently if I had children). One great advantage of apartment living you didn’t mention: I don’t have to spend half my weekends mowing the lawns and doing the gardening. No thanks! I don’t begrudge other people’s hobbies but gardening is of rather small interest to me.
I think a cultural aversion to apartments is an Anglophone thing rather than a specifically Australian thing, even the UK has far fewer apartments than the Continent.
I visited Iceland a few years ago. Like Australia, a very low density country with huge open spaces. I was amazed to see that, while most Icelanders live in detached houses, even in the small towns you’ll find plenty of apartments for people who don’t want or need a yard. I wish Australian country towns would offer people that choice too.
I definitely don't mow or garden every weekend, sometimes not even monthly and it's not a small area.
I think in the case of Iceland maybe it’s just easier for them to provide heating solutions during winters and all other amenities more efficiently and therefore more affordable to live.
@@haha-eg8fjapartment living is easier and more affordable here in Australia, too. We just have such a limited range of apartments.
if you can afford to buy a house, then you can afford to hire Jims moving, which I do then just spend quality time with my family.
Ive lived in Vietnam for 2 years, the average width of a house is about 4 meters wide, doesn't feel cramped when the ceiling is 4 meters tall. Doesn't feel cramped when the apartments are designed well.
Plus motorcycles and scooters, they need to become more popular. Carparks take up way too much space.
Lived in an apartment in Sydney, poor design with little privacy, you could hear all your nieghbours. Apartments in Singapore are so much better, better windows, thicker walls and have communal areas you actually use.
The new exurb developments in Sydney aren't even big houses any more, they all barely count as 3 bedders and they're stuck within a meter of each other. To think of the space that could have been saved if they just built apartments instead
So very true, it just shows how much people don't want to be stuck dealing with the fess, mess, bureaucracy and BS of strata / body corporate. We need a something new.
High density needs to be within walking distance to high quality public transport and shops. Otherwise it becomes high density urban sprawl where residents need cars. The exurbs need to be low density until public transport is improved and zoning can change.
As someone with a family, on average to lower incomes, I’d be fine with (and likely can only afford to) buy an apartment. But my complaint is how bloated apartment costs can be too. You’re not buying land, you’re not usually buying the desirability of a nice suburb (at least where I live older nicer suburbs tend to have 0 unit blocks) and yeah, build quality isn’t necessarily great. Plus no room to expand if your family does. In other respects I’d prefer a unit. I don’t really want to have to maintain a garden and don’t mind having less rooms to clean or fill with junk.
Eventhough "no one wants to live in an apartment" if you asked those that are currently living in an apartment they would say it's not their preferrence but with limited options available, apartment is all they have
Yep!
Who doesn’t want to live in a freestanding property given the choices? It all comes down to money. Even billionaires in Hong Kong want to live in freestanding houses if they have that kind of money to purchase it.
Nah, I've lived in apartments since 2017 as a renter then as an owner. I like not having to mow a lawn, don't have to worry about putting out the bins, I get a pool that I don't have to clean. The odds of me being burgled are diminishingly small. It also allows me to live in a great location with train station, shopping centre, a lake and a regional park all a few minutes walk away.
I love living in an apartment. It's a nice small space that is much easier to maintain and I'm walking distance of all kinds of shops and transit. This spot is occasionally noisy but you do get used to it and it's much better than the suburban back water I grew up in.
@@haha-eg8fj If living in a freestand property also come with a gardener, someone to fix issues and is close to public transports, oh and a cleaner because I don't want to deal with cleaning too many rooms. All for under 50-60% of my income, then great, sign me up.
Living in a freestanding property just sounds like time and money. Time I rather spend doing things I enjoy, and money I rather spend on holidays.
Australians dont hate apartments, Apartments just don't represent value when compared to other types of dwellings, if they were priced accordingly or if the tax structure incentivized quality apartments over land inefficient big block houses then the price value proposition may be titled more in the favour of apartments. The problem is the market is not free but distorted
Value. So you see housing primarily as a financial instrument
@@MichaelTavares no like any other product housing also is an instrument of utility . The price associated to it just quantifies its value at a given point of time. The financial cost of a dwelling is not only the sticker price you agree to pay but also the associated ongoing operational costs ie taxes, rates, strata , insurance, finance etc etc.
It's a conundrum for sure. I reckon the the Federal Governments negative gearing tax laws have a lot to do with housing affordability as it encouraged people buying more properties for tax breaks etc. There must be loads of houses around the country that are vacant from overseas investors parking their money here as well. I believe that this is a major par of what is causing all housing being way overpriced, making any property purchase out of reach for anyone just starting out. And we all know, the banks and real estate agents love the profit....
The tax incentives to the individual/family are nowhere near as beneficial as they are made out to be media/social media. Even if they were repealed, it's not going to make a flood of investment properties flood the market, may only effect new investment purchases and those with high borrowing costs.
Your 2nd point may have merit, but again the volume would be nowhere near what it is made out to be to make a dent either...
I think linking the comments comparing Sydney to Hong Kong has more to do with Hong Kong being the worlds most densley populated city rather than the race of people. Furthermore, you compared it to London which is mostly low rise apartments which is different to what we are seeing.
FWIW, I live in an apartment and am happy with it however, things that frustrate me, lack of outdoor space ( I would love a grass area) and lack of parking (My block of 20 apartments has 1 parking space per apartment and most of my neighbours park their additional cars in visitors or in the common areas.
I would love for Sydney to be more like Tokyo (My favourite city) with quality public transport, walkable areas and high quality housing.
Every apartment has a parking space? That’s a ludicrous amount of parking.
yeah that turned the video sour for me when he made it about race... my god 🤮
comparing sydney to hong kong is ludicrous tho and not a fair comparison. sydney would never become like hong kong.
I hate living in an apartment. I need a little outdoor space and I don’t want to share walls with people and their noise.
I hope nobody stops you from living in a house☺
@@yourone me too. Life happens you can end up anywhere, but even the best neighbors are noisy as I am sure I have been too.
Apartments are rubbish and an agenda lefties try to force people into
With the cost of the mortgage plus the cost of the body corporate being equal to or even greater than the cost of a free standing home, why would anyone buy a unit.
Heritage architecture is a pillar of the strength and appeal of any city. You can build apartments on empty lots, or tear down some awful modernist building and build a bigger one there.
They also need to get rid of a lot of red tape that is stopping denser housing being built. We don't want to end up like the US, with their obsession over R1 zoning. Although I do think that the further a piece of land is from public transport, shops, and other infrastructure, the lower the height limit should be. That way, growth is guided to where it can do the most good, more people use public transport, shops have more customers, and less money is spent on infrastructure per person.
I live on my own in a 2 bedroom apartment, and for the most part, I like it. The location is not the quietest, but I hope to move to somewhere more quiet in the future.
One of the best things about being in an apartment, at least for me, is having to think carefully about the things you buy, and how much stuff you accumulate. Even in this apartment I have way too much space to store all the stuff I am interested in, only to turn around and give a lot of it away a few years down the track. :) I try and be as quiet as I can, although this is annoying when one wants to crank up music. Headphones just don't cut it. :)
When it comes to urban living there are issues that people rarely bring up or gloss over - like urban illness, increase in mental illness, the extra pressure environmentally commercial farming creates when individual households are not producing their own, the increase in water usage in urban environments, inefficient sewer and waste management that urban environments over create and the decrease in ethical decision making in communities larger than 200 members. All of these things are backed up scientifically and should be a part of a serious discussion.
I currently own and live in a 3 bedroom free-standing home with a small backyard. I would be perfectly happy living in an apartment with amenities (no outdoor maintenance is also a big incentive) if they were big enough. The problem is for me, the ones that are big enough are way too expensive and the ones in my price range are way too small.
I don't think home & contents insurance comes close to strata or owner's corporation fees. For starters, no one is forcing you to have home insurance. ~$1900/YEAR for a house in NSW (2024) is a lot less than $1500 - $2000/Quarter (and even more than that, especially if the admin doesn't plan properly for major works). On top of that, you have to pay regardless...even if you don't use the amenities within the complex.
Typically if you have a mortgage the bank forces you to have home insurance...
@@zzz-pe3mp Depends on the size of loan, if the loan is covered by the price of a lot under the house, the bank doesn't care if a building is insured or not, except the first year, as they need a proof the building is compliant with building standards before approving a loan.
@@test143000 the insurance company isn't checking your house to make sure its compliant with building standards before issuing a policy and most traditional lenders in Australia will still make you get insurance if there is a residential building on the lot regardless of the loan value
When talking about strata, you only mentioned cost. There are also issues of governance; not only voracious Strata Management companies, but all the problems of incompetence, back-biting, rorting, and politicking you find in local councils with none of the counterbalancing.
Apartments all look nice and shiny for the first year or 2, but then the cracks start to show.
This isn't an inherent thing. Apartments work elsewhere, why can't they work in Australia?
@@307pdl lack of accountability for poor build quality and maintenance
@@307pdl They have cracks and defects all over the world. It inherent to the design of apartments.
It's not that other countries don't have issues, it's that people adapt to the conditions they are in.
@@307pdldo they? I argue that apartments in suburbia make us stressed and make us live like hermit crabs. Most major cities have massive problems with low birth rates because the environment they live is not conducive to building families. A sense of community and a sense of place- apartments will never provide these things. We are at the early stages so the data is not massive but the small data that is available it’s damming.
@@307pdl because the developers here have taken over building inspections- in many areas there is no independent oversight- so the cowboys come in, do a cheap job so the price out the good builders and leave terribly built apartments in their wake... then go into voluntary liquidation so they can't be sued, start up a new business and start the process all over again.
I born and spend my childhood living in Hong Kong before I moved to Australia. Apartment is always my last option.
I don't understand the obsession with living in a detached home, especially in new suburbs that are literally gutter to gutter and have only a tiny backyard strip. It's an apartment, without the benefits of living centrally.
I think we should all pitch in to buy Sharath a new wallabies hat.
You obviously prefer to stay inside and not have your own outdoor projects. But I am not in a new suburb, they do annoy me.
It’s because we want what we can’t afford/cant have in 2024.
Mcmansions are a horror, I agree
The hat part had me dying. Your so right😂😂
No strata fees and more freedom to do what you want with your home.
I am pro apartments, but I also think single family homes have their place too, but maybe not on tiny blocks with no vegetation.
I found this so stupid of older Australians who think apartments are shit. MY DREAM is to live in an apartment, as a current uni student who grew up in regional australia (Cooranbong Lake Macquarie if anyone was wondering) was so detached it was a 30 min drive to the closest shopping centre. I really really like the convenience of just walking a few minutes to quickly grab something from when i had a trip in Melbourne city centre.
I second this, as a kid I've always wanted an apartment, and my parents would tell me I'm wrong for wanting it. Am I wrong for liking small cosy spaces that are super convenient? They're also high up with great views which I love.
ill also add that, you can have kids in an apartment. even in a detached house i had to share a room with a sibling for 15 years of my life. a small 2 bedroom would in theory accommodate the ability to have 2 kids share that room. a nice backyard was nice but was always kind of boring because there was no one to interact with in said backyard, atleast a park on the ground floor has kids to make friends with. @@johnsontan345
This is hilarious, I moved out of Sydney 2 years ago to the area you left and absolutely love it. What do you term a shopping centre? Cooranbong is only a few minutes away from Morisset which has 2 shopping centres. If you mean a huge Westfield type mall then I had a half hour drive to the nearest one when I lived in Sydney. Cooranbong has public transport, something else I didn’t have in Sydney where it was a 30 minute drive to the closest train station where the parking was a nightmare. A bus to the station or to anywhere else would have been nice of course - but there wasn’t one. Even the school buses were ridiculous, they didn’t get to the school to pick my kids up until half an hour after school finished and to catch them to school required being at the bus stop at 7:45 a.m when school started at 9:00 a.m. school was 7 km away a mere 12 minutes by car. Here the bus stop is opposite my house. It’s lovely living in “regional” Australia.
As someone who lives on Level 4 of a nice new building in Braddon, I do almost all of my shopping at either Jamison Plaza or Majura Park. Sure, there's a new tobacconist downstairs that also sells milk (and eggs - if you don't mind them being refrigerated - heresy!). But the closest supermarket is quite a walk away, and carrying groceries sucks. Driving out to the suburbs to do shopping, with the free parking and better prices, just comes naturally.
I don't like apartments because they're often poorly constructed and are targeted at people without families. But I do like townhouses, especially Victorian townhouses. It's super easy to increase density dramatically, while keeping the "quiet suburb" feel of an area with townhouses. They're not even particularly expensive to make, although sometimes illegal because of idiotic building codes.
The thing is though, you could easily have family friendly apartments if the developer designs it that way.
I’m 32 and I’ll probably never be able to buy a house let alone a sardine can, but I think I would’ve preferred decent parents over a backyard tbh.
Poor construction is a legit concern despite the poor quality of houses. Its alot easier to manage the claims/rectification for house defects vs having to discuss in strata and there is far less cost to resolve a major house defect (even taking into account spreading costs between owners). Until more accountability or better guarantees in resolving defects with builders is available to apartment buyers it will be hard to convince people to by a new build apartment over a shit house with a longer commute. I get what you are saying though - I like the idea of being closer to the city and if an apartment was of good quality or came with a guarantee + set process for resolution of defects, was the right size and reasonably priced compared to a free standing house I would choose it for sure. Unfortunately the is a limited supply of good quality well maintained large older apartments so the cost is quite high!
the quality of apartments in australia is horrendus - thats the biggest fear what protection do you have with the biggest $$$ spend in your life. we are seeing it everywhere and the quality control process is just not evident
Owned and lived in both. So happy to have sold the house and moved to a city unit. Hated gardening, the damn lawn mower, gutters, pool maintenance.. and by 5pm everything was dead in the suburb. what a waste of life!! Prefer paying 12k a year in strata but be in the middle of the city where it’s alive. No backyard? Darling Harbour, Hyde park. Kids can run around as much as they like. Go to the basement for gym, pool, spa, … then walk out late at night for a snack or a glass of wine. Can’t even compare that with boring suburban living when neighbours compare types of lawns, and discuss retaining walls 🤮
I actually really love apartments I want to live in one they seem so nice, especially because a lot of them I see are located near easily accessible transport methods and apartments normally have nice amenities. 💗
I'm the opposite. I won't buy a property unless it has at least 100 acres. I want to be away from people and have privacy.
Plenty of apartments have good privacy, go inspect a few to sus them out.
@jamrollz The nearest city to me is 100 km away. I'm not living in a shoe box any time soon.
@@DatsunBloke7357 The thing is though, thats perfectly fine. We get a problem when we try to mix urbanism with ruralism and you end up getting the worst of both worlds - suburbs
@@kimjong-un8543 It only takes one bad neighbor to learn the lesson, one example someone knocks on your door with a sledgehammer because you left a window open in the hallway, the world is full of Nuts and there is no making friends with Nuts, they are not happy people. Try living next to one and you will quickly learn.
I live in Sydney for work, If i could continue my work in the countryside i would. I like peace, quiet and open space, but as a young person i have to start in sydney's tiny and overpriced studio apartments. The issue is with affordability, not necessarily availability. A nice apartment in sydney is just as rediculously priced as a nice house in the suburbs. Most of us can't afford either of them and therefore live in tiny or old poorly maintained properties in less then ideal areas.
I partially agree, but think you missed the point, for affordability we need supply, and the only thing stopping us from building more apartments is our culutural reluctance, look at the RBA Paper form Peter Tulip and his collegagues. Apartments are estimated to be overpriced by up to 60% in some area and on average 40% due to supply limitations from NIMBYS, like heritage locking up entire suburbs, and billion dollar infrastructure (i.e. Haberfield, Dulwich Hill etc)
Preach 👏🏽👏🏽 so well put together and argued. As an apartment resident for the last 15 years couldn’t agree more 🎉
I understand apartments, Ive lived in one, I grew up in the suburbs like most of us have, but now almost hitting 40 years of age, I decided to sell up and move out to a rural area and live on 10 acres, and absolutely love it, love the privacy, the wildlife, the fresh air. I have to drive alot further for work, but it is 100% worth it. People sacrifice where they live for convenience or being close to work, to sacrifice peace and quiet, and serenity, which seems insane.
The progress that you talked about is backfiring. We had a quote for a 15k repair before the new regulations, now its 150k after engineering and paying into the insurance fund scheme. Our strata fees have also gone up 70% due to insurances and other increased costs. Then there are the special levies. Our building is one of the best quality apartment buildings in the area. I was pro-apartments until recently. There is one new apartment building down the road that is 50% vacant, has outstanding repairs, they can not afford rectification under the new scheme and the people that took out huge mortgages for brand new luxury apartments are facing negative equity.
Australians would want to live in Apartments if they built them big, strong and with great design like they are in some European countries.
Here in Australia they are tiny depressing things and most built in last 10 years have shoddy constructions and are sure to drain your finances and make you poor in the future!
If your going to buy one get one that's built in mid 70's. They were big and solidly built.
Yes!! Why are they always 1-2 bed? It pretty much locks out young families and only single people/couples can live in them.
And why is that not still the case?
I’m not sure this is all entirely correct- a lot of the older apartments are also small, and/or have ‘more space’ but it is configured in ways where it is not very useful for the inhabitants (Eg. a lot of corridor, but small bedrooms or no laundry). The NSW apartment design guide, established minimum sizes, to try and legislate for improved liveability etc in 2015- and this has gone some way to improving the design quality of new apartments coming to market.
@@caitlin7932very true. We could build 4-5 bedroom apartments (many of us work from home and need a bedroom or two as an office) making them good for families. If there were plenty of options, prices will come down.
Hard truth is i don't think most of us are ever going to be able to afford to buy a house, even in outlying areas. We need the govt to help. People's mental health is also affected being stuck in small apartments unable to live anywhere else due to personal circumstances 😢
Stuck in Sydney because I was born here and the family is here.
If I move to save money I will lose my support system and my job so fuck me right? 🤷♂️
Strata isn't always the reason people are driven away, its when someone buys into it, and realises there is a special levy equivalent to another mortgage. It also comes with less security. A simple flimsy door is the only thing stopping your neighbour from breaking into your apartment from the hallway. Not to mention, you have By-Laws that force you to stay quiet, so you don't have other freedom to play bit of music in your place, along with Special By-Laws stopping you from simply changing the flooring without the Owners Corporation's approval. This can lead to another costly fee.
I think duplex is the best of both worlds not mentioned in the video. Especially near bankstown council. Lots of affordable ones near new plus no strata. And has decent backyard. Some with pool
Bett3r than duplex is a grañny flat. Two houses one set of rates and no DA required. Every property owner should invest in it. I think that granny flat should be the future. Increase the level of cheep housing for young families and gives low entry to investing for more established families(instead of developer mates of our politican class)
The way it c7rently is
I live in a strata complex where the land lot size is approximately eight single detached home lots, where each lot is typically 50ft x 100ft = 5000 sqft (~500m^2), so multiply that by 8 and you have 40000 sqft or 4000 m^2. For reference, one single family lot can easily fit a two-story 5 bedroom home with a balcony, with a front and backward with driveway space for two cars.
This 4000 m^2 lot serves about 80 strata lots (80 homeowners), each having either a 2 bedroom in the low-rise apartment or a 3 bedroom townhome. That's a difference of 72 homeowners that won't have a home if this was demolished and turned into solely single family homes. The city can collect taxes from 80 homeowners as opposed to 8 homeowners in this current position, which will fund infrastructure and city services more efficiently.
Of course, you can densify even more beyond three stories, but even having low rise complexes already improves the lack of housing choices when the default (or the only choice) is to build single family homes in many residential zones. Cities should be focusing on better land use - the default braindead way is to build outwards and have no amenities planned in those subdivisions of single family homes, where you force everyone to basically drive 15+ minutes to the nearest amenity. I've seen some pictures of subdivisions where the homes are close enough that I can touch my neighbour's home from a window.
Cities should also be focusing their efforts in developing alternative transportation options that aren't using private vehicles near the amenity hotspots. There is a different between 100% of trips outside of the home using a private vehicle vs 70% or even 80%. These trips could be grocery runs, pharmacy, and even going to and from school. If you're lucky enough, even commuting to work. If you can get it down to that much, you just reduced 20% of private vehicular traffic.
If houses were as affordable as apartments, I think most people would prefer to live in houses. Afterall there have been so many quality / defect issues from apartments in recent years that really put a huge question mark over their quality. Then there's the issue of expensive strata as you mentioned.
I live in a suburb in the inner west of Sydney that has seen a massive increase in high rises over the last 10 years. We have public transport, train stations, buses, metro stop that will open in the next 10 years. Yet the roads are getting more and more congested and nothing has been make traffic flow better. Live here for a month and you'll understand why it's so problematic.
Apartment building standards are too low in Australia, for example there is no noise insulation requirement. The other main issue is poor build quality and strata levies. Apartments are built for foreign investors not locals.
The big problem with apartments is they only build the short, squat ones which really do ruin the area. The need to build apartments the way they do over in Rhodes and Wentworth point. Not cheap, ugly, three storey brick shoebox monstrosities, but 50+ storey modern skyscrapers with 4+ bedrooms, enclosed balconies and surrounded by beautiful gardens, with a seperate storage area in the basement and at LEAST two vehicle spots. Don't build 'apartments', build stackable houses.
3-4 beds in Rhodes and Wentworth point are not exactly affordable even by Vincent. Very similar price with a detached house.
Two vehicle spots? Forget that. If it’s right near a really good transport connection zero parking spots. Otherwise you’re just dumping hundred of cars into an area. Horrible
Even apartments blocks in Rhodes are not very well designed. There are very few convenience stores in the area, and not enough events. Most events are in parramatta or in the city. If there is a tech park or a HQ of some giant international company it would be totally different. But now it’s just a town for a bunch of international students.
2 cars per apartment for every apartment is excessive. Most apartments, especially the tall ones, are zoned to be around transport hubs and corridors anyway.
I hear banks won't lend to people buying in Rhodes. Also, it's built on one of Sydney's most toxic sites. I wonder if the people living there know what they're living on.
Australia isn't running out of room. There's massive room across the continent.
The problems are that there is insufficient incentive (jobs, preferably a mix from low-average paying to well paying, and insufficient infrastructure, businesses, shops, recreational facilities) for hubs outside the big cities to attract people in numbers and grow.
One option might be to split some states in two, requiring new capital cities which would have intrinsic growth and investment incentive.
Government crooks bankrupt private sector there franchise today
While I don't mind apartment as a lifelong bachelor, my biggest gripe with apartment is definitely strata, especially when it comes to an older apartment.
The cost of fixing common property also includes other units roofing and windows, which could cost 5 digits in thousands.
I'm not against an apartment as anything from 60-90m2 is sufficient for a single bachelor, although I'm not keen to see more suburbs turning into apartment/flat-packed suburb like Mascot.
having only owned in Sydney, what do other countries do fi they dont have strata?
Yes all new apartments being built assume buyers are single who only use public transport and only eat out or socialize by going out, thereby justifying incredibly limited visitor carparking spaces, tiny kitchens and entertaining areas. Basically only a step up from a prison cell.
The biggest challenge is largely a PR issue as you summed up, because if there was a good public opinion on apartment blocks there would be more demand and therefore supply to follow. But you raise good points about heritage listed suburbs ruining part of that plan.
Personally, as a musician with a mountain of gear, I need a house and easy car access for my weekly gigs. But if I wasn’t a musician and there were decent apartments that were pet friendly and affordable, I would be interested as a long term solution
I saw that article in the SMH and had to laugh at the complete disconnect Vincent had from the reality of what's going on. "If you want affordable in Sydney, forget it, just pack up and go live in a small town with no opportunities"
I live in Albury Wodonga and I can tell you with great confidence that even regional cities have problems with how they do urban planning. I'm gonna be a bit biased. But Albury/Wodonga is a great example of an urban area with terrible urban designs. With two very strange intersections and car dependant sprawl. The local Bus network (particularly in Wodonga) is not suitable for most people to use. I usually only use it because I sometimes don't have any other way of getting around but I also prefer to use Public Transport over driving. Telling people to move to regional Cities does not solve the problems the big cities like Sydney and Melbourne have, it's passing the buck to those communities that in many cases will likely not be able to provide the same services that the big cities have. I personally would like to do an urban planning course, but my local unis don't provide any urban planning courses, so I'll have to go to Sydney, Melbourne or even Brisbane to do the course I'd like to do.
Albury-Wodonga, has good urban design, look at the incorporated and integrated parklands throughout the suburbs, the park lands sit at the lowest points, so you have dispersed trees and great drainage through the suburb (as the sewers and stormwater infrastructure can run unimpeded down and through parklands)
Sounds like your issue is with the frequency of buses and it's timetabling. Air you grievances with the council.
First of all, the state government runs the local bus services in Wodonga, not the local council, secondly, the local council and the local bus operator have been advocating and even the local MP have been advocating for better bus services in Albury/Wodonga, including most infamously, a route to the suburb of Killara.
I'm mainly talking about the design of our city centres and our neighbourhoods, I personally think the Albury CBD has the best city centre design in Albury/Wodonga, people always gravitate there because it has everything and it's easy to walk around the CBD and the carparks are away from the main centre. Wodonga has improved in recent years but still suffers from having lots of carparks near the CBD. Lavington's CBD is terrible and requires navigating through a carpark to get to any small businesses.
First of all, the state government runs the local bus services in Wodonga, not the local council, secondly, the local council and the local bus operator and even the local MP have been advocating for better bus services in Albury/Wodonga, including most infamously, a route to the suburb of Killara. I'm mainly talking about the design of our city centres and neighbourhoods, how friendly they are to people who don't own a car.
We are still building houses for cars away from the public transport catchment area, interestingly and the past decisiond of governments have made it pretty clear in regards to who is prioritised first.
$800k for a dog box apartment made of cardboard, it's not Vincent's fault, he's worked his arse off. See the guy with the fancy ute towing a jet ski? He built that apartment block that's falling down, his mates in council allowed him to not provide sufficient parking or green space and he's laughing at all of you
Did Vincent really work his arse off or did he benefit from capital gains?
If you watched the video, you'd see that a Millenial or Gen Z who worked just as hard their whole life as Vicent did and doing the exact same job he did, would be completely unable to home in the same nice suburb as him. In fact, they'd struggle to own a house anywhere in Sydney. So we should deny younger people who work their arse off the chance to own a home in Sydney, because older people like Vicent don't want to see any change. How's that fair?
My thought, so many different generations in our city’s seem to have lost the ability to be Respectful of others, be empathetic and mindful of other peoples lives.
People who have worked extremely hard, saved their wages and purchased their homes to provide for their families are being denigrated because they want to continue to live in the homes that were paid for with their blood , sweat, tears and extremely long hours. SO NOT RIGHT AND SO NOT FAIR.
Why do people think it is fair for the. To give up all they have struggled to obtain because others want to demolish communities, parks end the environment built to provide adults and children with a beautiful place to live.
Its time to take a look at how and why we are trying to replicate Bee Hives and Ants Nests suburbs, rather than tree lined wonderful communities bringing joy and happiness to those that live and grow there.
Shame on making people responsible for the mistakes and lack of foresight of all levels of Government , especially the Planning Departments.
Get out of your cars and walk through some of Sydneys amazing historic suburbs , and feel the energy, fresh air and beauty of the building and ask yourself how you can despise those living there for not wanting to loose their homes to high rise building, lack of parks, trees and green spaces.
Just because you want to live close to your office what right do you have to kick people out of their homes ?? Shame!!!🙏🏻😢
We need more narrow streets and terraces. They never get built but the old terrace suburbs like paddo are very popular.
If no one is having babies in the west and everyone lives alone then there is no market for big houses. Those days are over.
In Finland they just built lots of 1 bedroom apartments. And some 2 bedroom apartments because some people living alone need a home office.
There is still market for mini houses. Some singles like to have a garden. But nobody needs a house with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms anymore. Because there's no kids.
Nice video! I almost laughed when you said Australians came off as ‘subtly’ racist when talking about apartments (or public transport for that matter). You are too kind! Maybe it’s hard to feel over TH-cam comments, but in person many Australians show literal disgust at the idea of living in an apartment and “being like *insert Asian city*”. They 100% believe that Australia is better than anywhere else, owing to the fact they are on an isolated island where they don’t have to recognise the things going on in the world around them. Thankfully I feel like things are slowly changing with younger people 🙂.
I dont know. I was having a conversation about how expensive property was to buy in Sydney with a friend in their late 20s/early 30s. I said you can get an apt. She looked at me with disdain and said "I dont want to live in an aparmtment!!"
Strata sucks. High levies. Cant do major works without a bylaw. Poor build quality. Neighbour has building issues, everyone foots a bill. How about if you need repairs? Have to go through OC for approval. How about renos? Need to get OC approval and bylaw. Shoebox size, expensive, annoying neighbours. Cant install solar, cant install ev chargers in basement cause crying karens about fire hazards. I can give u a thousand reasons. I will never live in strata again.
I live in the Blue Mountains and I know of 1 person who owns 30 AirBnB properties. That is 30 family homes that have been taken out of the market for 1 persons greed. They are not even rented out to families to live in full time. That is disgusting in the housing crisis world. The area isn’t zoned for hotels so why are AirBnB’s allowed to operate in residential areas. They increase demand and push up prices of other rentals.
AirBnB’s should not be allowed. If you have your own personal holiday home that is okay because you are not making an income from it. The law should be changed that a rental property for income has to be full time and not leased out for a few nights here and there for holiday makers. If this was changed how many properties would be opened up around Australia for people to live in.
💯
Is this persons properties in the Blue Mountains? Because I am relocating to that area soon for work and cannot find a small place to rent at all. There is alot of job demand in my field but nowhere to live for single persons. Plenty of airbnbs but almost no 1 bedroom rentals. I know it's popular for tourism but come on. It makes no sense, where do they expect people who work in the community to live? That's the problem with airbnb is they usually renting small places that single people who WORK need! Not everyone is married yet with a double income to buy a house.
6:23 yeah, all those excuses are copium. A well designed suburb with apartment blocks should have ample green space for kids to play as well as shops and public transport.
As someone who returned to Oz from Hong Kong in the 80s as a kid, and who considers Hong Kong his second home, I’ve watched in dismay as Sydney has slowly become more like Hong Kong, the wide blue sky slowly disappearing behind these edifices. Whatever the realities of overcrowding, it’s still sad to see. Strata nightmares, ironic loss of community by living closer together, not to mention the feel of apartments in covid are real turnoffs.
I suppose this creep is inevitable, but they shouldn’t sell apartments as something better than a house - a flat is essentially a settling for less, packing more into less and you sacrifice certain things in doing that.
Lived in High rise in Germany for years before coming to Oz, a house is 10,000% better living
It's not just Australia, as a Singaporean, I hate living in hi-rise apartments too. I'd well prefer to have my on backyard with a garage.
I lived in a unit/condo/townhouse whatever you call it for 7 years now
The people here are friendly but they always want to talk. I’m autistic and need to be left alone.
And I want more than a few square meters of garden.
Strata always has some lunatic on the committee who needs to feel like a dictator.
Strata fees here are closer to 7%.
Read the title and all I can think is: Wait until you pay strata fees for a few years.
Upzoning around train stations has to happen. Has been discussed for far too long. Also a green belt to stop outer suburban mcmansion sprawl!
You should check out suburbs like Kensington in Melbourne. I think it s a great example of density done in a way that fits Australian sensibilities. It's mostly 3-4 story apartments or townhouses. If you look at the neighborhood blinded by epsom road and Kensington road and the maribynong river you'll see plenty of townhomes surrounded by parks. It's super family friendly and if more suburbs in Australia where like this housing would undoubtedly be more affordable.
I live nearby in a 2 bedroom as part of a 3 story complex and completely agree. Really wish other areas were like this.
Yep I’m in Ascot Vale and it’s a nice mix too
lol at first you were talking about Kensington in Sydney and almost fainted. It is exactly opposite of everything you described!! I actually found many suburbs in Melbourne seemed to have a good mix.
It's lovely there. I work around there but it's too expensive for most.
as you say if it is replicated elsewhere it would help.
Having lived in apartments across Asia the thing which really struck me was how flimsy Sydney apartments were built. Those build in Sydney before 1996 are very sold, being all brick and concrete, although in Sydney almost all windows prior to the 1950’s are very cheap and poor quality. I found Sydney apartments built after 1996 very noisy. Noise from neighbours could easily intrude because the wall and windows were thin or poor quality. Apartments build after 2000 were often unliveable in summer without air con running all the time.
In Hong Kong the apartments, while very small, were solid and if the air-con was not on you could still live in them, even if could get humid. Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Taipei, Shanghai, Bombay were all the same. I must admit in Madras/Chenni you needed the air con on all the time, but that was because it was so humid. Same in Jakarta, Manila, KL and Singapore, but the apartments were still much more solid than post 1996 Sydney apartments.
I suspect the reason why Australian’s don’t like apartments is because they are not built to be liveable, only built to be cheap. I must admit many Sydney apartments are large. Build better quality apartments and people may be more happy living in them.
I would happily take an apartment over a house if they got rid of them bluddy body corporate fees. Otherwise I will see how long I can stay at my parents house, save up then eventually rent or buy a house. As for poor quality, it’s often the tradies or contractors if the construction companies taking shortcuts. These shortcuts affect the building’s safety and risk of collapse and affects house, apartments, office buildings, shopping centres, the list goes on really.
Pool and gym are a massive waste of money, I would never buy into apartment that had them.
Not sure why, but medium density residential builds are perfect. Take a large block of farmland, 200 townhouses with shops and cafe's. Less for strata, larger spaces, small backyards and much more appealing communities. This way you can still have the larger 3 bed room buildings without squeezing everyone into an apartment block. That's a good medium for us.
Housing is fucked, and it's been decades of shit management by government and city planners that have caused this.
1) Quality: I was talking to friends recently and they mentioned that the quality of the build of apartments in other countries are great, properly built apartments are fantastic buy for some reason Australia likes to build shit apartments. They build shit houses too, but you'll hear your neighbours less in a house.
2) Strata: As a poor millennial who has never even been able to contemplate even affording a house I don't know whether rates are the same in an apartment vs a house, but perhaps that is a way to encourage more apartment living, discount rates commensurate with the size of the property? That way strata fees wouldn't be so bad.
3) Immigration: Immigration IS an issue, but not because of immigration per se, but more because we're not building houses in sufficient quantities to allow for higher immigration. Fight me.
4) Transport: Why not build more high speed rail or better public transport?
I personally think the best way to solve the housing crisis at the moment is to increase density near the cities with much better standards and engineering from overseas, lean into public transport and incentivize working from home from a policy level. Personally I would love to live in an apartment but the costs associated are just astronomical. I think the only house i'll even be able to rent soon is a tent.
As you mentioned, it's the strata or body corp fees that make me never want to buy or live in an apartment. Fortunately I'm an older guy and bought when land and houses were cheap. Things will not be so easy for my kids although my eldest son is just about ready to move into the house he's having built with his wife and child. He bought this after selling his first property which was a unit. Fortunately he's very hard working and has a decent job. Things may be harder for my younger two boys.
I agree that it is better to build proper apartments around Sydney than cramming duplexes and two story buildings. My area (Canley Heights) is a dichotomy of this. We have a tonne of duplexes but more apartment blocks are being built. The only thing is that council needs to upgrade infrastructure to support the density increase.
I love living in an apartment and if I had my time to do over again it would be the preferred choice from day 1. I hate gardens and gardening, I want to spend my spare time surfing or enjoying the city amenities. I want to be within 15 mins of my workplace, at most 25 mins of work.
Maybe apartments need to be more liveable for families. Designed for families instead of couples.