Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

Thanks mate.
"I'm not afraid to take a stand, Everybody - come, hold my hand.
Let's walk this road together through the storm, whatever weather cold or warm"
:p

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

This is something which drives me nuts about Australia and Australians (and I'm Australian!) So much NIMBYism and this insane idea that everyone, even in a big city, should have a single storey, single family house with land around it. When I go back to sydneyr (or other Australian cities) I can't believe how far it sprawls into boring suburbia and commuting times/distances are just horrendous.

I now live in Rome which isn't exactly a paragon as public transport here is not great compared to the rest of Europe. But it's the same size in population as sydney and has a much smaller footprint. We live car-free and walk or take public transport everywhere. Living in a flat is way more environmentally friendly too.

We're currently searching for a flat with a decent terrace (we only have small rather dangerous balconies in our current place) so our toddler can play outside with water and sand and we can maybe have some lemon trees and things. You don't need a whole backyard for that - a decent sized terrace will do.

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

Yehp bring Brick Lane to Coburg and I'll vote for you :) I'll be complete if you do that.

(Victoria Mall could be a starting point..... Tell your mates) :thumbup:

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

Not by that much. I can never understand why people put huge single story houses on tiny blocks, surly it's worth spending a little more on a two story giving a decent size garden.

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

Is there actually a shortage of housing stock in Melbourne? It's been a while since I spent an extended period there but the entire Docklands was a ghost town back then. In Brisbane we've just lost the Regent Theatre to build more office blocks for a city where there's a crazy high vacancy rate. There's rumours of us losing the Ekka showgrounds now even though there seems to be no lack of housing units either. I hate to see all this destruction in the name of greed dressed up as 'progress'.

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

Well the plan of the architects is that they will build 5 story apartment buildings along the rail lines.

Not sure who the hell is going to want a tenement block next to a busy rail line, but that looks to be what they are going to try to force onto people.

Houses in Australia are built cheap. Their '5 star' standards would not be allowed in the UK as they are too flimsy. Building single story to borders of the plot is the cheapest, highest profit option for them. In addition double story, being so badly built, tend to have an uninhabitable upper floor during the summer as all the heat rises.

So my guess is multistory building with continue to be a pipedream until such time as the price of building up is lower than the price of building out - whatever the town planners say. If it does ever happen they will be complete horrors, sink estates for those that can't afford the artificially inflated prices - and noisy as hell.

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

That's OK for those who want to live in Apartments. But, for those people who like houses, it must drive them nuts to hear people wanting to change things to everything high rise.

NIMBY n. Slang , pl. One who objects to the establishment in one's neighborhood of projects that they do not like themselves.

eg:
The NIMBY's who don't want single story houses.
or
The NIMBY's who don't want multi story houses.

Everyone is a Nimby :rofl:

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

Nimbly said! :thumbup:

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

Nimbys strike again
Tensions rise on housing project

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

Are you referring to the Nymbys who want to do the developments ?

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

Not
In
My
Back
Yard?

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

I can understand the pros of building high-rise (or even medium-rise), but I just don't want to live in it or near it. Why did I move from a high density country to a low density one - it was certainly not be crammed in and have no garden.

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

I think as the OP said, there are extra costs with a double storey houses. I would have preferred one but thanks to the bad exchange rate we couldn't quite stretch to one! Plus everyone else around us is building singles so it would have looked silly. Some estates have restrictions on some of the blocks for building doubles, I think there are about 6 blocks on our estate that have to be singles.

The other part of our estate has had quite a few doubles built on it so maybe they are getting more popular. The only annoying thing is that they are HUGE so if you are unlucky to be a single next door then you may loose some sunlight. Plus they seem to design the front nice but not the sides so you end up looking at an uninteresting wall of windows and bricks!

As for apartment blocks, well they just don't build them in our area. They built a very trendy apartment block down the end of Mornington main street and boy did the locals complain. I would have happily had one of them but it was twice as much as a house!

They have been talking about doing more high rises in Mellie city. There are a lot of high rise blocks in Docklands, must be hundreds of flats contained in them but apparently you can't go out on your balconies because it's too windy!

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

It will be long after the dust from the property collapse has settled that Aussies will take a step back and realise what they've destroyed. I had some muppet in the Gold Coast gleefully describe for me with the aid of a map how in 20 years time the area will be like LA with high rise sprawl from one end of the horizon to another. One can only dream. :rolleyes:

Re: Why no vertical expansion
 

It's the way that developers get the ear of the local council or state govt that bothers me. The state and local planning policies get written to suit the developers, rather than the other way around and deciding what is appropriate for the area. For example, they try to sell the idea that concerns about increased traffic would not materialise, as high-rise would mean that more people would walk, cycle, or get public transport to move around to get to the wonderful new shops and offices they are planning. They forget to mention that in 40 degrees people are not going to walk or cycle to get their shopping, or even post a letter. Some areas just do not have sufficient infrastructure or space to put infrastructure unless properties are resumed. It's sad that kids and adults are fighting over access to sporting grounds for their practices and matches. Meanwhile, the council rakes in the huge rates from thousands more properties, but there are only the same number of parks or libraries, or whatever, as there were before.