A rising population increases pressure on the housing market anywhere in the world. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics placed the population in the country at 24.2 million as of September 2016, which was about 350,000 more than the previous year. As a rule, Australia’s population has been steadily rising at a rate of about 1.5 per cent per year and all these people are going to need places to live.
The need for housing diversity
Does the current housing market address the specific needs of the population? While everyone cannot afford a mansion, not everyone wants to live in a small, cramped place in a bad neighbourhood either. With their expectations somewhere in the middle between these two extremes, it’s important for architects to deliver housing solutions for a wide range of different people with varying tastes, preferences and budgets in mind.
How Australia’s ‘McMansion’ approach is restricting housing diversity
The McMansion approach refers to a simple design formula for housing a family – a large house with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a roomy three-car garage. Professor Terry Burke from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute argued before Parliament that these domiciles won’t be the right fit for enough of the population for the current building model to be sustainable.
Lack of housing diversity is especially a problem in the affluent suburbs of major Australian cities. In areas like western Sydney, for example, there’s a lot of building, but not enough diversity among the housing projects currently being undertaken.
The rising population is putting pressure on the architectural sector to crank out liveable housing as quickly as possible to accommodate everyone. Given the advent of new building technologies, it’s now easier than ever to mass-produce houses and get them ready quickly. But according to recent findings, too many houses are all the same.
Fixing the problem
For families to have a range of different housing options available, better planning early in the building process is important. This means real estate developers need to examine demographics carefully as they shape their business strategies.
The housing options available in Australia’s cities and suburbs can be modified either by building different homes in the first place, or by changing existing residences using inventive retrofitting strategies. To do so, builders can consider the different kinds of architectural products available for these projects.
Locker Group offers a broad range of products that can assist with new builds as well as renovations and modifications. Wire mesh curtains from Locker Group are an ideal way to add texture or character to a room, especially in upscale homes.
Locker Group’s vast catalogue of construction products makes it easy for builders to customise their projects to any specification they have in mind, be it for a mansion or a more modest home.
