Reshaping Cities, Including the Housing Problem

[Irrev-Black]

More than 80 unoccupied and underused office buildings in Melbourne’s CBD have been identified as prime candidates for redevelopment into more than 10,000 new homes.

A property audit of the city centre, conducted by the design studio Hassell and planning consultancy Ethos Urban for the Property Council of Australia, listed 86 buildings in Melbourne as “really ripe for adaptive re-use”.
Ingrid Bakker from design studio Hassell in front of 85 Spring Street, an unoccupied building identified as suitable for conversion to housing.

“If we only converted half of those, we could supply around 10,000 to 12,000 new homes, and each repurposed building would use roughly half the upfront embodied carbon compared to knocking existing buildings down and rebuilding,” said Ingrid Bakker, principal at Hassell.

Despite the push to get workers back into CBD office space (cue yet another interview with an inner-city cafe owner), the answer may lie on letting work reshape itself and finding intelligent reuse for buildings.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/nation ... 5dxf2.html

[Irrev-Black]

Some clever New Zealanders rejig the homeowner dream, and make it less impossible.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-24/ ... /102714716

[Irrev-Black]

The future of Sydney could be a dry old argument.

It's not just the threat of miners working too close under Warragamba Dam, but there's a lack of sufficient infrastructure planning.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/enviro ... 5e0jn.html

[stylofone]

The future of Sydney could be a dry old argument.

This was one of my main reasons for getting out of Sydney. The total water storage was down to around 30% IIRC, and it hadn't taken long to get there from 90%. The droughts are getting worse, day zero is becoming more likely.

Meanwhile, if councils knock down 20 apartments and replace them with 5 luxury zillionaire pads, they count it as five dwellings added, not 15 removed.

The other interesting thing in this article is that new flats require a parking space, otherwise the streets will fill up with cars. You aren't allowed to build them without a garage or whatever. That used to be OK, but now the car-free future is actually illegal!

So when you hear that "we're taking action" it might mean "we're making it even worse".

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... xury-homes

[pipbarber]

Its funny how, 'we're taking action' often means we're making everything worse. I can think of so many instances lately where that's applicable. Really, the whole build more houses solution is a case in point, especially in terms of the crazy urban sprawl. I can't forget the 1 million unoccupied dwellings on census night. Build more housing? Add to the number unoccupied dwellings. We all know what the problem is, and we all know that no one of any consequence will articulate it, let alone be brave enough to discuss solutions. It feels more like late era soviet economic management everyday - habitual pantomime.

[Irrev-Black]

The future of Sydney could be a dry old argument.

It's not just the threat of miners working too close under Warragamba Dam, but there's a lack of sufficient infrastructure planning.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/enviro ... 5e0jn.html

Et tu, Brizvegas?

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/nation ... 5e3ti.html

[stevebrooks]

Problem soled, just rent out your garage. No water, no washing facilities, no cooking facilities, no weather proof sealing, just a garage door, how much? A few hundred a month you suggest? Nope, $1000 a month, mind you it didn't last long, I suspect while outrage was high online, it's actually illegal to rent out a non, weatherproof, unsanitary room, well being generous, more a shed sort of. It certainly wouldn't pass health inspector examination;

In a shocking display of Australia’s extreme and growing housing crisis, a Sydney landlord has offered a dank and small garage for $250 a week.

The listing, posted to a Facebook page for rentals, shows a bed and a mirror propped up against the roller door of a garage, with a fridge and shelf lumped next to the home’s water heater.

“Looking for a person to rent out the garage in Dulwich Hill location $250 a week, four weeks bond, plus bills,” the listing, which has since been deleted, states.

I'm pretty sure you can't have the hot water heater in a livable room in the house lol?

https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/s ... 3349d00506

[stevebrooks]

And we have another moron;

The unit on Gould St went under the hammer on Saturday for $511,000 – more than $41,000 over its reserve.

Ray White Eastern Beaches agent Angus Gorrie said four of the five registered bidders were active at the auction with the successful bidder an investor and all underbidders first home buyers.

This is why we have a home crisis in Australia, I mean seriously why? Yes it's about the money, but I think we really need some rules laid down on investor purchasing otherwise we will never solve the housing crisis. Not sure what needs to be done, but maybe in areas where there's a housing shortage (yes I know just about everywhere) house purchasers should be required to live in the house for the first 12 months, no renting allowed. I mean here we have 4 first home buyers now all on the rental circus, at least one of them could have been living there but we had to have some greedy investor come in, apparently with unlimited money, to push them out!

https://www.realestate.com.au/news/17-s ... cement=spa

[stylofone]

And we have another moron;

The unit on Gould St went under the hammer on Saturday for $511,000 – more than $41,000 over its reserve.

Ray White Eastern Beaches agent Angus Gorrie said four of the five registered bidders were active at the auction with the successful bidder an investor and all underbidders first home buyers.

This is why we have a home crisis in Australia, I mean seriously why? Yes it's about the money, but I think we really need some rules laid down on investor purchasing otherwise we will never solve the housing crisis. Not sure what needs to be done, but maybe in areas where there's a housing shortage (yes I know just about everywhere) house purchasers should be required to live in the house for the first 12 months, no renting allowed. I mean here we have 4 first home buyers now all on the rental circus, at least one of them could have been living there but we had to have some greedy investor come in, apparently with unlimited money, to push them out!

https://www.realestate.com.au/news/17-s ... cement=spa

I've heard at different times that it's the owner-occupiers that have biggest impact on house prices, they're so desperate to get into the game they go above what the investors are prepared to pay. But I think it might have gone beyond that now.

[stevebrooks]

And we have another moron;

The unit on Gould St went under the hammer on Saturday for $511,000 – more than $41,000 over its reserve.

Ray White Eastern Beaches agent Angus Gorrie said four of the five registered bidders were active at the auction with the successful bidder an investor and all underbidders first home buyers.

This is why we have a home crisis in Australia, I mean seriously why? Yes it's about the money, but I think we really need some rules laid down on investor purchasing otherwise we will never solve the housing crisis. Not sure what needs to be done, but maybe in areas where there's a housing shortage (yes I know just about everywhere) house purchasers should be required to live in the house for the first 12 months, no renting allowed. I mean here we have 4 first home buyers now all on the rental circus, at least one of them could have been living there but we had to have some greedy investor come in, apparently with unlimited money, to push them out!

https://www.realestate.com.au/news/17-s ... cement=spa

I've heard at different times that it's the owner-occupiers that have biggest impact on house prices, they're so desperate to get into the game they go above what the investors are prepared to pay. But I think it might have gone beyond that now.

I suspect the reason is the amount they can now get for rent, you have to do the calculation, how many years to pay of the amount you borrowed at the current average rent for the area. Once the rent goes up in the area then paying more is justified. If the amount they can get for rent is more than the mortgage an average first home buyer is able to afford or willing to pay per month on a mortgage then the balance shifts in favour of investors and against home buyers, and vice versa. At $600 per week rent that makes $2400 per month. For a tiny place like that paying $2400 per month mortgage just doesn't make sense, move out of that area and you can get a house for similar prices.

As the rent increases so does the amount an investor is willing to pay, as the rent decreases it turns in favour of home buyers. Now, when was the last time we saw a drop in rent prices?