Can apartments solve the affordabilty problem?

One of the key hopes for apartments built in the suburbs, is that they can bring the entry price for a home down to affordable levels. If you look at the offer prices there is some hope in this, particularly in the big high rise developments when designed for that purpose. How ever buyer beware, as this article in the Age shows, body corporate fees can catch out ill-informed buyers and negate the low buy price.

Owners corporations: Sharing not always bliss.

…Buying in

  • Considering an owners corporation property? Homework in advance could save heartache later:
  • Read the Owners Corporation Certificate in the section 32 — information provided by a property’s seller. This will include fees — these can range from a few hundred dollars to more than
    $10,000 a year for a luxury penthouse.
  • Read and understand the plan of subdivision and the unit’ s title. What exactly would you own…

There has been a lot of discussion about sustainability of high rise vs the traditional Home…

…Green Building Council of Australia and World Green Building Council chair, Tony Arnel, challenged the high density vision for our cities when he told the G’Day Conference in the US recently that high-rise buildings were not more sustainable than the suburban home… High-rise living – sustainable or not?

Some similar sustainable concerns are voiced in this article…

….The premise behind this government totalitarianism is that high-density living is better for the environment. They say that people will use their cars less and that greenhouse gas emissions will be greatly reduced. While these two propositions sound very much like commonsense the unfortunate fact is that the data does not bear them out. An idealised Melbourne study currently being quoted assumes that people, no matter where they live, will drive to the central business district daily. This is a completely unrealistic assumption.  Only 9.9 per cent of employment in Melbourne is in the CBD. …

There are other sides to living in high rise appartments, living that close to neighbors is a learnt skill, and as was explained to me by a home visiting nurse recently, it is a skill most Australian’s struggle with.

What ever happens we need to find some balance;

  • Meet the growth needs, don’t bloat.
  • Promote work for the building industry, but spread it around. Bigger is not always better.
  • Make living affordable in communities, don’t destroy the character for those already there.

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