Hobart real estate agent Nick Cowley says he believes the Hobart cityscape will look a lot different over the next 10 years.
He’s so confident in that, he’s opened a project marketing office designed specifically to handle off-the-plan apartment sales.
“Apartment living brings a whole different lifestyle choice for residents,” he said.
“Low maintenance, central location, less time in the car and more time enjoying our beautiful city.”
But at the moment, Hobart is lagging when it comes to higher-density living, and experts say boosting it could be key to the city’s future prosperity.
People ‘aren’t used to living in much smaller homes’
A Ray White economic report this week highlighted Hobart’s very low rate of units and apartments, which make up only 15 per cent of all dwellings.
That’s compared to 46 per cent in Sydney and 34 per cent in Melbourne.
In London, Singapore and Hong Kong more than 80 per cent of all homes are units.
Ray White group’s chief economist Nerida Conisbee said higher housing density was a key factor to achieving affordability, and Australians would have to change their views on what an ideal home looked like.
“Many people don’t like higher densities around them and most of us aren’t used to living in much smaller homes,” she said.
Mr Cowley said Tasmanians were open to the idea of apartment living, but its adoption was slow as the traditional view of housing remained the Australian dream of a single, detached home in the suburbs.
“Units are highly sought after across the full buyer spectrum due to affordability,” he said.
Mr Cowley said there were many apartment complexes in the pipeline for Hobart, but quality construction and design was critical to improved livability.
“I foresee a very different Hobart skyscape over the next 10 years,” Mr Cowley said.
The price of sprawl
Urban strategist Steven Burgess is an advocate for inner-city living, and says the cost to the community on the whole is less when medium-density housing is built in urban areas.
“Every time someone builds a house in the outer suburbs as opposed to the inner suburbs, it costs our community well over $100,000 extra in infrastructure costs just to get that block out there,” he said.
Mr Burgess said cities with a higher percentage of units and apartments had an economic advantage, over and above the initial affordability factor.
“Young people don’t want to drive. They want to walk to stuff and invest in local businesses and they can’t do that if you don’t have medium-density living,” he said.
“There are so many opportunities in Launceston and Hobart to put it in, and we’re just not doing it.
“It’s really to our detriment. We’ve got to get a wriggle on.”
He said well-designed apartments would also attract white-collar workers to Tasmania, who were seeking out modern, inner-city living.
“They don’t come here. We can’t attract them because we don’t have the housing options they want,” Mr Burgess said.
What’s stopping developers?
Mr Burgess said developers were often intimidated by community opposition to building projects.
“There’s a demographic in our community that says ‘no’ to everything,” he said.
He referred to a “shameful incident” where a St Vincent de Paul proposal for a 38-apartment development on Argyle Street was knocked back by the Hobart City Council in May.
Property Council Tasmania executive director Rebecca Ellston said there was a “huge NIMBYism movement” in Tasmania, which stands for Not In My Back Yard.
“Developers require certainty when it comes to even putting a feasibility case forward for medium-density buildings here in Tasmania,” she said.
She said situations such as the St Vincent de Paul proposal was “driving developers to look elsewhere to build”.
Finding the workforce
Hobart building company Cunic general manager Will Davies said currently half the builds by his company were multi-residential.
“We see there’s a demand across all sectors of the industry for multi-residential developments, both social and affordable housing projects as well as first home buyers and people downsizing,” he said.
“We think people’s attitudes towards multi-residential is changing and people do have more of an appetite for these style of development.”
Mr Davies said planning and labour constraints would be barriers to addressing infill housing in the city.
“The labour force constraints are going to be pretty significant across all aspects of the construction industry,” he said.
“Until we can better plan our requirements over a medium to longer-term horizon we are going to struggle to retain our workforce or entice people into the training pathways.
“It’s really critical that we have an ongoing workload to keep participants engaged and ensure they stay on once they’ve completed their training.”
Australian houses largest in the world
Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said the council was approving apartment developments at “record levels”.
“There have been multiple inner-city apartment projects approved in the past few years,” she said.
“In fact, 98 per cent of all dwelling applications that come to us are approved.”
She said the council was very supportive of inner-city apartment living.
Cr Reynolds said the conventional view on houses had led to Australians having some of the largest houses in the world.
“I have no doubt that our expectation for those very large houses has had an impact on the ability to deliver supply and on the cost of housing,” she said.
“Our role as a council is to ensure we are approving apartments that are well designed that people find as attractive places to live.”
She said the feedback from real estate agents was that people were looking for apartments in four-to-seven-storey buildings that were well designed with good amenities.
Loading…
Posted , updated