Diversity of housing stock and good amenity key in the new Australian Dream
The dream of home ownership is deeply ingrained in Australian culture; in fact, it has been dubbed The Australian Dream. However, as housing affordability problems spread across the country, this dream is transforming.
The way in which property developers are delivering their communities has changed as a result.
Leading developers are offering a wider variety of housing stock, according to Cameron Leggatt, executive general manager development at Frasers Property, to accommodate a shifting dream.
They are generating options for various types of buyers and stages of life, said Leggatt, from small or larger homes in the suburbs to apartments and townhouses in inner-city areas.
“The Australian dream is still about owning your own piece of real estate,” he said.
“It’s something that people strive for in Australia, it is one of those things that if they can get their first property, they might see it as a milestone of accomplishment in their life.”
Leggatt said this has meant compromise as prices rise and the traditional four-bedroom, two-bathroom home on a quarter acre block become harder to achieve. This can mean living further from the city for a traditional plot of land or living closer but in apartments or townhouses.
For developers, Leggatt said it is about providing as much choice as you can to cater for all demographics, from first and second home buyers to downsizers and investors.
Amenity more important than ever
“When people are having to potentially buy a smaller property, it’s about ensuring the developer has good amenity in the projects, and that includes social amenity such as parks,” Leggatt said.
Developers are also responding to the growing demand for accessible amenity, such as transport, education, parks, retail, cafes and dining options close by building attractive master-planned communities and local infrastructure — not just houses, he added.
“We find that buyers will come in and they’re willing to make that trade off, maybe lose a bedroom if they can see other benefits,” he said.
The diversity of choice is location specific, Leggatt said, a one-bedroom unit 50km from Perth might not make sense, but one closer to the city does.
Prices and supply
The mean price of residential dwellings in Australia was $941,900 in the March quarter, up from $925,300 in the December quarter 2021, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The median house price in Sydney rose by 16.4 per cent to $1,245,000, and by 9.4 per cent to $930,000 in Melbourne, over the 12 months to the March quarter 2022. Meanwhile, in regional NSW, the median house price increased 29.1 per cent to $800,300, and the Victorian regions saw a rise of 17.4 per cent to $640,000.
A shortage of available housing is one of the factors driving prices up, and future supply is predicted to fall well short of demand.
The National Housing Finance & Investment Corporation has said between 2025 to 2032, Australia will find itself 163,400 homes short of expected demand.
Well-designed housing
Houses with thoughtfully planned dimensions and clever use of areas like a study, storage room, and natural light become even more important as the dream shifts in the face of rising prices.
“A well-designed product can solve a lot of issues,” he said.
“It’s amazing how you can overcome someone going “I definitely need x number of bedrooms, or, I’ve got to have this backyard’ through good design principles.
“You need to design things well while making sure you can hit a price point and create a great value proposition.”
Leggatt said offering a sense of community is also an important factor in this equation.
“It’s not only the tangible things that you normally think of,” he said.
“On all our projects, we have community development managers which look to bring the community together.
“From the minute that you’re trying to conceive the development, you’re setting the project vision.
“You’re thinking about how the community will evolve and come together. You’re really thinking about how do we hit a price point?
“How do we create true value and how do we make it desirable so that people who might have a tight budget can get in and be a part of this as well?”
While Leggatt said the dream has changed, it is far from being a thing of the past.
“The dream is not dead, it is still there, it is just a bit different,” he said.
“We are probably moving into the first true generation of people that in Australia, that will probably bring up families in apartments as a normal course, of course of life.”
Content repurposed from realestate.com.au’s article Is the great Australian dream still alive?