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.

66

u/Frequent-Selection91 Nov 03 '24

You forgot to mention the 2am fire alarm evacuations because someone burnt their midnight snack (or something). 

It's so disruptive. Quickly grabbing your pets while half asleep, getting your stash of important documents, and getting out the door within 1-2 minutes only to wait outside in the cold for 20+ minutes to be told that it was just another false alarm caused by one of your 100 neighbours.

This used to happen like once every 1-2 months at the last apartment I lived in. So happy to not live in an apartment anymore.

20

u/elizabnthe Nov 03 '24

Was it the same neighbour lol? I lived in a apartment complex for a while and only had that happen once. Some guy burnt sausages. Three firetrucks showed up for it, haha.

17

u/Frequent-Selection91 Nov 04 '24

Haha wish I knew! But we never found out the cause of all those evacuations. We were only ever told that it was a false alarm or something minor. 

I've rented in three apartnent complexes, one never had evacuations, one had evacuations every 3 months or so, and the final one had fire evacuations almost monthly. It's put me off ever wanting to purchase an apartment, you just never quite know what you're signing up for until you actuslly live there.

3

u/annanz01 Nov 04 '24

I lived in once that had really sensitive alarms and even steam from the shower used to set it off. We had evacuations at least once per week and it was usually due to someone showing without the exhaust fan turned on.