COUNCIL APPROVING ONE BEDROOM APARTMENTS AS SMALL AS 43 SQM. 

The high cost of construction and the hefty sums paid for blocks of land on Doncaster Hill are among the factors being blamed for Council allowing developers to skimp on the size of apartments, not to mention the risk factors of falling prices during the long period of construction and the current glut of apartments for sale.

Sliding Screen For bedroom ventilation Click to enlarge

“Coversign” a real estate salesman writes; “resale prices of the high rise apartments continue to plummet on the local market. A one bedroom apartment in a high-rise building close to Westfield Shopping centre, purchased for $359,000 in 2011-12, is now listed for sale in March 2015 for only $340,000 and another owner in the same development, who paid $559,000, will accept $550,000 if a buyer could be found… huge losses when you add agents commission and the legal costs involved etc”.

Some apartment developments are so dense they would not pass laws in major cities throughout the world, prompting the need for

an urgent review of apartment design. There are no laws in Victoria governing the size of apartments how they are designed
Margart, who preferred not give her surname, says living in an apartment was like being in a prison. ”Our son was like a confined animal in the apartment,” she recalled. ”He broke every appliance we had he would run out into the hall and it would take me a half-hour to coax him back in.”

As Margaret, and her husband soon learned, living in an apartment with a child can be difficult. While play dates, preschool centers and playgrounds can provide a social life for toddlers, living high above a cityscape often defeats the spontaneous play and exploration that young children thrive on.

Margaret and her husband eventually moved from the Doncaster and have rented  a house in Box Hill, where their son, Adam, has easy access to the outdoors.

Many experts in child development and urban psychology say that life in a high-rise apartment can present hurdles to a toddler’s psychological growth, particularly to the young child’s need to develop a sense of autonomy. And high-rises are exactly the kind of buildings that have sprung up throughout Melbourne in the last decade.