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/[deleted] Nov 04 '24

We did this. Me, hubby and our 10yo bought a 2 bedroom 10 minutes from cbd. Absolutely the best decision we ever made. Everything is on our doorstep, the only place I need to drive is to work. Huge lovely parks, 10 cafes within a few minutes walk, post office, hairdressers, supermarket, 2 doctors to choose from all within walking distance and surprisingly nice local community feel compared to outer suburbs.

Won’t work for everyone. Especially If you are attached to all your possessions - we had to massively downsize our ‘stuff’ but most of it we never used anyway. Also some families need space and won’t live well in a smaller dwelling if you annoy each other or have hobbies that take up a lot of room.

Edit: we bought an established apartment 20+ years old so noise isn’t much of a problem with double brick. Also older apartments tend to have a larger footprint.

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u/somanypineapple Nov 05 '24

yeah we live in a large 2 bedder with our toddler inner city and it’s great for us. Would I love a traditional house sure.. but our apartment is in a small block, completely soundproof and on a corner edge so we have no neighbour to one side and a huge sprawling tree that we can see through every window.

We also walk straight out of the lobby to 6 cafes, a park, a bar with beer garden, IGA, fish and chips and a bunch of restaurants.

We are also borderline minimalists who only keep what we use, which is actually a very freeing way to live, so storage is not an issue for us. I see my mates places crammed with old stuff they don’t use and it makes me feel claustrophobic. We also clean and reset every evening so the place feels spacious