THE INTERIM RESULTS OF UDIA’S HOUSING WE LOVE SURVEY HAVE BEEN RELEASED, WITH A DEFINITE SWING TOWARDS DENSITY — IN NODES AROUND TRANSPORT, AMENITY AND SERVICES — BEING ACCEPTED BY THE COMMUNITY.
What is being built in Perth is changing and Australian Bureau of Statistics data for housing approvals gives evidence that the recovery in the non-housing sector is well under way.
In 2008 “non-housing” approvals — approvals for flats, units, townhouses and apartments — reached 29 per cent of total approvals. The lack of project funding saw the percentage of non-housing plummet to just 16 per cent in 2009. But it has recovered and is now sitting at 27 per cent, and likely to at least be maintained, if not grow, over the next year. Last year, records were set in greater Perth for both housing (20,071) and non-housing (7473) approvals.
“Non-housing” pretty much covers approvals for flats, units, townhouses and apartments; anything that is not a detached house. There was a 44 per cent leap in non-housing approvals in greater Perth. But it was not enough to set a new record for the proportion of non-housing as a total of all dwelling approvals. The record of 29 per cent was set in 2008 then fell to just 16 per cent in 2009, but the fall was because project funding dried up during the GFC.
Housing approvals in greater Perth had a more modest lift of 14 per cent in the comparison of the full 12 months in 2013 and 2014. Low-rise non-housing has proved popular, with two-storey semi-detached houses up 32.6 per cent to 1185 approvals and two-storey apartments (one dwelling over another) up 34.5 per cent to 1138. It is the high rise that has had the biggest uplift, with four-storey or higher apartments up 60 per cent to 3172. Delivering apartments can be challenging as up-front development finance is vital.
What is more difficult is securing appropriately sized parcels of land in the right location. Harder again is finding sites which will allow development at precinct scale, which delivers well planned, mixed-density projects with good amenity, creating a value uplift for surrounding owners. While there are some large-scale projects in the pipeline, such as the proposed Curtin City, we need a framework which allows the efficient assembly of land parcels in key locations where there is fragmented ownership. The current “one house lot at a time” approach to intensification will deliver sub-optimal outcomes in the longer term.