In WA, houses in the outer suburbs which were built some 40 years ago seems to have a bigger bedroom (3mx3m), a couple of smaller bedrooms (2.4mx2.8m), a laundry area with toilet, a small bathroom, a kitchen with a small dining area and a living area. Some houses have a built in wardrobe in the master bedroom and in some houses other bedrooms are slightly bigger. Such houses sell quickly these days. I have seen houses older than these with toilets outside as well. Then these toilets moved into laundry areas. And then houses such as the mentioned above. Then rooms got bigger, an additional living area was built, wardrobes needed for each room, then an additional toilet+bathroom, bigger dining areas, bigger living areas, garage. One can actually guess the age of the house by the size of it. Now all house designs seems to have 4 bedrooms (4mx3.5m or more for master and 3mx3m or bigger for others) with wardrobes in each of them and a walk in one for master, 2 bathrooms, a theater, a study, a living area, a dining area, an alfresco area and a double garage. Some even have a games room and kids' activity area! And some master suites are as big as a granny flat! And of course, the gardens are getting smaller (almost gone at the backyard) Obviously the newer homes are preferred by buyers. Older homes get extended or get rebuilt. I saw some Canadian house advertisements and they seem to have a bathroom for each bedroom! Will that happen here as well? I am wondering what sort of houses will be preferred by families in the future? Say a family which doesn't want to live in apartments with 2-3 kids...
Yes, there's a lot going on. The tiny house movement does seem to have some momentum, although not here yet, and that may change both supply and demand around a bit - smaller houses on same/more land. It's certainly interesting when talking with people who have just built and asking them - if you took 1m off here, and 40cm off here, and a bit more here, would you be really worse off? Did you know that extra space cost you $60,000 now, or $150,000 over the life of the loan?
Tiny houses may be taking off in parts of the world, but do you really want hundreds of them clumped together with no shared green areas or other resources. Prefer the New York city idea where smaller apartments are included in larger mixed developments allowing for greater choice of community. I also believe the idea of the dual key properties in Australia are great as they can allow flexibility for families as their needs change.
I would love some NYC style density, but I don't see it ever happening here.. I do think there will be growing demand for smaller/smarter designed homes in the future as land values continue to tick up & young people want to be near CBD regions. One thing I think that is probably going to take off here that we currently do a horrible job at.. Storage. Maybe its due to high wages for cabinet makers here, but typically the low to mid range apartment stock in Aus (especially the new stuff) compared to whats available in overseas is really poor. We seem to be in love with this "minimalist" open plan aesthetic, which is great until you actually have to live there and realise there is nowhere to store your ironing board, vacuum cleaner or half your wardrobe. I expect to see a trend toward this sort of thing: http://i.imgur.com/6QA2cRW.jpg http://i.imgur.com/650KXCF.jpg
The claims about people wanting a backyard is nonsense. In most new release areas there is a desire to maximise the size of the house, with no real care for the backyard. Make apartments or townhouses big enough and people wouldn't really notice a difference. The biggest thing that needs to change is setbacks. Such a pointless waste of space. 900mm side setbacks are a massive issue. It is such a nasty, useless space. Blocks would be better off being 1.8m narrower with build to boundary provisions on both sides. On an average suburban block this would allow for one additional house per block. Without comprising on anything except for having to reconsider window design to get adequate light and ventilation.
People want backyards until they get one! Once they experience the maintenance it needs, they don't want backyards again And yes, the size of the house it getting bigger. People talk a lot about smaller houses in forums, but what gets built out there seems getting bigger, not smaller!
Australia has one of the smallest household sizes in the world. And one of the largest house sizes. This has a huge impact on affordability and really needs addressing.
Dual key properties, granny flat integrated into the house so that part of the house can be rented out, massive rooms with walk in ward robe and en-suite (similar to studios but sharing the kitchen).... Just wondering whether rooms has to be even bigger with more bathrooms as well. Gives more flexibility.
Agree with @AndrewTDP , 900mm side set backs are really useless. For God sake, they had brains to do access lanes at the back of block in 1800. Bring back old town planning!!
I like this estate and the overall design - a bit more affordable than most as well. http://bayland.com.au/163carinish-road-clayton/floorplans.php And this one. http://www.fitzgibbonchase.com.au/Masterplan
