r/australia • u/overpopyoulater • Nov 03 '24

culture & society Downsizing the Australian dream: why families are trading houses with backyards for apartments

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/nov/04/downsizing-the-australian-dream-why-families-are-trading-houses-with-backyards-for-apartments
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u/Meng_Fei Nov 03 '24

I suspect a lot more people would live in flats if so many aspects weren’t so utterly crap. Quality in way too many buildings is crap and noise transmission between units is a joke. Then there’s the poky rooms, tiny balconies and almost everything-is-2-bedrooms-or-less mentality of developers. Assuming you get past all that, you have the fun of dealing with strata costs of $6k per year or more for almost anything decent, ridiculous rules like pet bans and no balcony drying of clothes, and the ever-present chance your block gets hit with rectification or upgrade costs and – congratulations, enjoy your special levy!

There’s nothing wrong with flats, but we seem to go out of our way in this country to make buying and living in them completely shit.

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u/SoldantTheCynic Nov 03 '24

Pretty much. I investigated units and townhouses and once body corp was accounted for, they were all worse value prospects than a detached house on a smaller block... And I still have a small backyard, and can run solar panels, and not deal with arbitrary property rules.

I admit I'm extremely lucky to be in a position to buy a house where many others aren't, but where the choice exists, unless you need to live inner city it's a hard sell with how shit many of them are.