Highgate WA: 4 townhouses development

That sounds very livable.
There are some really pokie ones going up in Melbourne.

 

Townhouses For Sale with studio in Perth - Greater Region, WA (Page 1) - realestate.com.au

 

God don't even get me started on those Gild St ones...whomever thunked this one up needs a performance review...

The Crawley ones are the kind of thing I'm talking about all the time. Volume, volume, volume without looking out of place. Pity there's no separate toilet though, but then, this was the 80s.

 

An interesting thread. Had never thought that 1 bedroom townhouses would be a thing. In the right locations it would work well.

@Westminster - Early on for this development, did you compare numbers on doing 1-bedders versus 2-bedders?

(although I did read earlier that a concession lead you to go for 1-bedders)

 

I rented this place from a friend of mine for a couple of years from around 2011/12 until 2014 i think.

When i moved out he decided to sell it and i gave him a hand organising since he lived over east. I remember being surprised at the appraisal the agent gave, but having sold over 10 directly for me/people i was helping anf prob 30 or so for friends of mine i trusted him.


At the time, the market in perth for general property was ok-ish, nothing good but not too bad either.

I think they asked from 539k and got 550k but dont quote me on the figures. This complez was small, 6 only and some 2 bed and some 1 bed townhouses. Very liveable but did have not insignificant thermal and sound insulation issues.

It shows the kind of demand out there for properly designed and executed single bed townhouses. Leedy is more expensive than highgatw for units/multis and the market is worse now than then but i simply canot aee a situation where what youre designing is worth some of the low figures youve been thrown.

The fact that some might even suggest slum, and its not just targeted at azazel as ive heard others say it toi, shows how much of a lack of awareness there is of the product though

 

I don't think there is anything whatsoever wrong with building 1 bedders, why would they be considered slum, small complex, well designed, good specs. If there is a demand for this product then why not build it? If there was a demand for this product in Willagee I would be doing exactly the same.

I guess we do not actually have any current sales data available so we are all just guessing at the moment what can be achieved. Who knows where the market will be at on completion??

MTR

 

Agreed, theres no specific data available in the area for it but theres lots of data available around perth showing that they do sell for a decent premium over 1 bed apartments the same suburb

 

And that is my best logic. From talking to people that own this product, sell this project and my own assumptions it is worth more than a one bedroom apartment because:
a. it's larger. 70 sqm internally for a one bedroom apartment is rare - they are 45-55sqm mostly these day plus 30sqm courtyard plus 13sqm balcony plus carport outside your door
b. it has land component. 90sqm of precious inner city land
c. it has no common property and no extravagant body corporate fees etc
d. perfect for introverts (not everyone wants to live with 50 other people)
e. no one parks next to your car and dings it

 

Yes I did look at that option at the beginning. I had a lot of options
1. 4 x townhouses with 2, 3 or 4 bedrooms
2. 4 to 6 apartments with 1 or 2 bedrooms
3. 6 x one bedroom townhouses with the SBD concession

 

Thanks. It's interesting what you can achieve with that small site.

 

Funnily enough, I am the one bedroom demographic, and I definitely believe there is a niche for this. For most of us Gen Y'ers it just seems like a cheaper alternative to buying a so called "McMansion" for a single person.

Maybe as an asian I have different views, but I really don't care too much for space, but rather having a nice place with a bit of capital growth potential, and generally with most of these as a single professional or young couple, its enough space to get by since you spend most of your time outside anyway. I'm interested to see how Perth goes from here, but congrats WM!

 

Interesting. Do you get a plot ratio bonus or something similar for the single bedroom dwellings? What councils allow for an addition multi purpose room?

 

It's amazing how easy a "multi-purpose" room becomes a 2nd bedroom when you add an ikea robe.

 

You get a 1/3 concession on your min and average lot size.

So if it's R80, for example - Average 120sqm, Min 100 for all single houses and grouped dwellings.

For a single bed dwelling of the above nature (not a multiple dwelling) the new average is 80 and the new minimum is 67.

So if you had a 240sqm lot @ R80, what was a duplex (240 ÷ 120 = 2) could possibly be a triplex (240÷ 80 = 3) subject to meeting your min land component after any common property - if at all.

The smaller land component generally pushes the bedroom upstairs, so becomes a town house / terrace home / row home.

A single bed dwelling criteria must only have two rooms for habitable purposes (ie a living and a bedroom).

There was a narrow window back in 2010 when the concession was also applied to multiple dwellings. 243 Walcott St was able to secure this, and was able to put 18x single bed MULTIPLE dwellings on an otherwise 12x dwelling site on the lack of clarity in the original R Codes Part 6 addition.

But - no more. Clarification made and concession does not apply to Multiple Dwellings (ie flats).

 

With people having kids later and later - this is an ideal type of place to live until 35+ when they want to have kids. Low maintenance but private and central. Ticks lots of boxes for me

 

@mrdobaline The bonus is the genius part - it's item 5.3.3 in the ResCodes. You only need two thirds of the minimum lot area. My lot is R80 so I only need 66.66sqm of dedicated space. I didn't go that small but it's an option.
Most councils just use the Residential Design Code definitions and guidelines for the Single Bedroom Dwelling but some have their own policies like the City of Cockburn which allow a second multi purpose room room http://www.cockburn.wa.gov.au/docum...cy_Statements/PlanningDevelop_Serv/LPP1.5.pdf
Other people get around it by having an 'open' room with no door like the study below


Someone did a large (more than 20) of all Single Bedroom Dwellings a few years ago in Baldivis when the limit for a SBD was 60sqm. They were even marketed as 2 bedders (!!)
Sold Price for 18/71 Kingaroy Drive Baldivis WA 6171

 

If this where anywhere else, other than Cockburn, it's not a "single bed dwelling".

Technically an SBD requires a full open plan living area too. Can't do a kitchen/meals to rear and living to front.

 

Wouldnt it depend on the LGA's planner knowledge? Not many know about them and when i queried them it was a 2nd room without a window is allowed (cant be a habitable room according to NCC), <70sqm and everything els e goes.

 

I've not seen any documentation about not splitting up the living areas @Aaron Sice can you send me a link?

 

It's by the definition, not any ruling.

Not more than two habitable living areas. A meals area is a habitable room - so plus a living room and bedroom makes 3x, not 2x.