Getting more affordable housing

If people are willing to trade off land size for living in a new house, that’s fine and dandy.

I wonder if this will have an effect on slowing down housing price rises in more established suburbs? Or if there needs to be much more property on the market to have such an effect?

I did not get my own room until I moved out at the age of 19 – Kids these days get the equivalent of my old govvy childhood house just for a bedroom.

Perish the though that we had a 2nd bathroom for us kids.

Listening to 666 yesterday afternoon, the developer was talking 30% ‘affordable housing’ (if the gov’t relaxed the planning laws) as:
a) 15% 3 br & garage on ‘villa’ block @ $280K
b) 15% 3 br & garage on ‘courtyard’ block @ $299K

Villa blocks were described as approx 300-400 m2 and courtyard blocks as 400-500 m2.

Indeed. Kids shared bedrooms, these days they must have their own rooms and ensuite.

People need to learn to buy and live in what they can afford. A generation ago families grew up in 2 or 3 bedroom houses with one bathroom, or even an outhouse.

seepi, your retirement suburb idea is already in the permission stages, close to the West Macgregor site.

You know where all those grapevines are at the end of Drake Brockman Drive ? – IVO there.

“Because the land is worth 3 times the bricks and mortar as it is.”

Geez JB where are you looking? Braddon? Harrison $160-200K for land, $300-400K for house to put on it.

Now for Ralph’s plan:

Less Soviet-inspired planning like that being touted here, release land, get rid of red tape, and let the market sort out the affordable housing non-issue.

Ok – here’s my second plan.

Medium sized blocks with small houses on them, with some backyard for kids to play in.

The houses will be built with no steps, and once the families expand enough to move out, the houses can be extended into the backyards, to provide downsizing opportunities for older couples who want biggish places with no yard and no steps.

The downsizing opportunity (eg quite nice largish unit with small courtyard and no steps, and newish needing no maintenance) is a huuuuuge market in Canberra at the moment, and places like that cost a mint and go like hotcakes. And the scarcity of them means that older couples are clogging up 4 bedroom houses in the inner north, cos they have nowhere to downsize to.

In fact scrap my previous idea – the govt should build a retirement suburb, it would probably free up heaps of older houses all over Canberra.

Seepi, that is one of the smartest things I’ve heard in the whole ‘affordable housing’ debate!
I’ll see where I can take that thought with some people…
Expanding on your idea, as they get more equity built up, they have room to expand the house. And the extra space would mean in the first instance they can make sure the house has good solar orientation, making it cheaper to heat, and a smart builder could do it all with modularised plans, so future extensions can be selected ‘off the shelf’ as it were.
“I’m excited…”