For many housing and construction industry commentators as well as potential home buyers, the outlook on housing affordability in Australia’s capital cities is grim, with most, if not all forward projections not that much brighter.
According to PWC, ‘Australia is facing a housing affordability crisis across its major cities’.
However, there may be a solution at hand. REA Group Chief Economist and speaker at the upcoming Urbanity 17 conference Nerida Conisbee says that while Australians still dream of the big house on a big block, they are slowly but surely accepting that to be able to live in the city, they may need to reduce their land and dwelling size expectations.
“Overwhelmingly, Australians prefer to live in a big house on a big block. But given a choice between a large home on the urban fringe and small home close to the city, people start to make trade-offs,” Conisbee says.
“There are a lot of different development types occurring from townhouses to apartments. Some are great examples of ways of creating higher levels of urban density, others aren’t.”
“The ones that seem to work are those that are created as liveable environments, as opposed to low cost stock aimed purely at investors,” she says.
“When I present to investors, I frequently tell them to consider whether they would be prepared to live in the apartment they are looking to buy. If the answer is no, then these are the types of developments that will struggle to find tenants as well as be re-sold at a later date.”
Nerida Conisbee will present at Urbanity ’17, which will be held on 28-29 September 2017, at the Royal International Convention Centre, RNA Showgrounds, Brisbane.
For event information and to book your ticket visit here
