A simple regulatory change would reduce the risks and costs associated with providing family-sized housing in the established middle and inner-ring suburbs, writes architect Michael Smith | OPINION housingaffordability
Being a new dad myself, it is a question that seems particularly uncertain. If you have teenagers, it’s probably only a matter of time until your kids will want their own space. But if they choose to stay in Melbourne where exactly would they be able to afford?With Australia’s ongoing housing crisis, the answer is likely one of three possibilities: the outer suburban fringe, a small city apartment or living with you indefinitely.
So how can we increase housing supply without contributing to these issues and lining the pockets of property developers? If we are serious about solving this issue, we must level the playing field for the types of housing being built in our existing suburbs. However, if you would instead like to build a two-storey apartment building with six or so homes within it, this automatically requires a planning permit. It doesn’t matter if the external envelope is identical to a single home, any apartment building must go through this process.Jessica Shapiro
If the two-storey suburban apartment building in established middle- and inner-ring suburbs was exempt from planning in a similar way to single dwellings, it would reduce the risks and costs associated with providing this kind of housing. Additional public interest safeguards such as compliance with the
What should matter is the overall height, intensity, and design quality of a proposal, not that the proposed dwellings are apartments. In fact if gentle density were adopted more widely, the need and demand for higher density apartment towers would be significantly reduced.
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