BadgeIsBack

First cut and paste
http://www.theage.com.au/news/nation...851138134.html

Caroline G

It looks like a posh shanty town

Spot the difference
http://images.google.com.au/imgres?i...lr%3D%26sa%3DG

jad n rich

Congrats on your first C&P - I quite like them, good for generating a discussion or in the case of the australian forum a mass riot

I think you have to be careful calling that type of housing crap, it seems to be what most appeals to immigrants from the UK , maybe the price and proximity to facilities. Not ideal, one estate round here was the place to be 5 years ago, now the show homes have moved out, its mainly rentals, overgrown parks, kids lighting fires, general hoonsville.

Like you I personally prefer the acerage, its not perfect, even on 2 acres we are still very aware of the neighbours, people buy this stuff for pools tennis courts etc, all noisy, and very snobby, like every conversation starts with we live on acerage , so bloody what. Problem is if you want acerage within a couple of klms of all facilities its very very hard to find and :scared: expensive.

BadgeIsBack

What I want to know is why? Why not create smaller homes on the same block - or if they want 1m more people - smaller homes on smaller blocks. I don't know who is ultimately sanctioning these builds - if architects are slaming them.

You know, we need AC for 2 weeks a year. These new builds have no eves no nothing.

Your point on acrage: one of the things about where we live is that the acreage is integrated with the land and the village so its not really snobby, or attract the tennis court crowd - its just an option and most people thank their lucky stars they're here and live quietly. We actually thought it might be a bit feral or country - but people are so quiet about it its actually quite nice here.

I reckon 90pc of Australia's well documentated and hyped issues and deficiencies can be found on them and add fuel to the Anti-Australian debate.

moneypenny20

I found this quite interesting after hearing about the size of blocks being sold in Perth but I was a bit confused

Blocks of land up to 1000 square metres, far bigger than residents needed or often wanted.

Average house sizes of 253 square metres, up from 176 square metres 15 years ago, despite the average household size falling.

Houses built too close together, leading to noise and privacy issues.

So is it right that "residents" don't want or need larger blocks - personally I love my acreage but realise it's not for everyone.

If the blocks are bigger, it stands to reason the houses will be bigger. Are they saying that they should be cramming more boxes onto smaller blocks and that would be better for the next generation?

But then the houses are being built too close together - if the blocks are bigger - how does that work? Surely if they make the blocks smaller, the houses would be even closer together.

Also who is so important as to decide how much land a person "needs"?

I admit I know very little about it, we moved here, found our property and moved in - haven't had to get involved in estate living, but somethings just don't seem to add up.

fraser

F**k me I have to agree with Badge for the second time in as many days, well how couldn't I after our house building fiasco?

I walk around the estate every day and their are other builds by our builder that are appaling, there's one where the roof line curves up as it goes along the garage.

There are a few good ones but most are terrible.

jad n rich

Average house size has increased as land has got smaller, its just what many poeple want, the minimum most people now want is 4 beds plus office, plus living, plus dining, plus home theatre, plus 2/3 bathrooms plus double garage. Even older couples whos kids have flown usually want all this too.
No eaves is crazy but no longer allowed up here, the general problem is the quality gets cut so people can get the size, well in lego land anyway.

We couldnt buy acerage further out, not with kids being school age, the amount of driving to and from sports, events, social activities would be a nightmare. The agents reckon for every acerage in town there are 20 buyers, probably a lie but it did take us 15 months to track one down.

BadgeIsBack

Hey there are people who job it is to decide these things - town planners etc who would even consult with sociologists etc. It's not quite a finger in the air thing. It's like the people who define poverty as not having a winter coat - or a means of washing or bathing. Actually all very sensible. But money talks(!)

One thing that astounded me, land sizes are not getting bigger. 1000sqm is not the norm. Big blocks don't mean bigger houses in my books.

jad n rich

Land size has got smaller as more and more people want to cram into the 1 hour radius around what is essentially 6/7 cities

People talk about all australias space, but how many want to actually live there? Not many it seems, that includes aussies, the government is now wanting to pay people to move where the space is, not many takers most are happier crammed into the same old bits.

We bought what we did as they no longer develop 2 acre lots anywhere near here, closest new acerage is 10/15 klm out.

angec

We're in the process of moving out to acreage,for us it is the dream, for many people it's not. Many of the people I've told about our big adventure the idea just hasn't appealed to them. We'll be more than 20 mins from our nearet Target!! We've got our current 4x2 Estate house on the Market.

I guess coming from the UK where many of us lived in a semi/terrace with a low fence to our neighbours, our expectations in a house over here are often more than met by the Estate houses that we all seem to bag so much.

We bought one, and had we not found our dream property we wouldn't be moving from there. But the strangest thing is the comments from many viewers of our current place is that the house is a bit small. It's a normal, not freakish sized 4x2 on 600 sqm. Maybe it's just the Brit in us that we prefered to have a house with a bit of space/Garden left outside when we were looking to buy. Who needs what is effectively 3 lounge rooms!!?

jad n rich

Social trends, aussies are more and more inside people, shows up in every study done on health and fitness - most prefer to watch rather than play sport. Purchases, biggest seller items are playstions and BIG TV's. hence the trend for masses of rooms to stick all the electronic entertainment. Recent study even had aussies prefering a new TV to a holiday

moneypenny20

That is one thing I still can't get my head around. Why do people need two dining areas plus a breakfast bar why do they need two living areas plus a rumpus room plus a media room

I can almost understand people having two dining areas ie kitchen table and dining room in the UK but here when most people eat outside anyway.......?

BadgeIsBack

Thing is mate: Most of my points are actually valid and based on something tangible. I've been around the traps, am fairly observant, and you don't spend 3.5 years on Expats without learning something

jad n rich

Keeping up with the jones family syndrome, our plumbers just sold his 400 sm house, now building 800 sm not sure why, its only him and the dog

fraser

The amount of 35sq + houses you see with just an alfresco area and no garden because they're too lazy to look after it.

Rachel sometimes does a 9km round trip walk to take and pick Henry, so sometimes 18km in a day, the Aussies look at her as if she's mad.
most say they wouldn't bother taking the kids.



Where I've been working if their cars are say 30 metres from the building where they clock off they all drive their cars and park them outside the clock off so they don't have to walk back to them.