We're building more of them.
Aussie homes and apartments are, according to the 2021 Census.
In fact, over the past five years, Australia saw the fastest increase in occupied homes in at least two decades, and newly built apartments drove much of that growth.
But even with the rapid growth in apartment living, Australia’s housing stock is still overwhelming comprised detached houses.
A bit of backyard reigns supreme
Economist at the REA group Angus Moore explains...
"At the 2021 Census, 73% of all occupied private dwellings in the country were detached houses.
That share has fallen over the past two decades, from 77% at the 2001 Census.
But that decline has made only a tiny dent in the dominance of detached homes.
And while the number of occupied apartments is growing quickly, most of what we build is still of the detached variety.
Over the past two decades, the number of occupied homes has risen from 6.9 million to 9.2 million.
Of that 2.3 million increase, detached houses comprised around 1.4 million – or 60% – of the increase.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of these 2.3 million new homes are built in the eastern states, where much of Australia’s population resides."
Here is where we're choosing to live
Of newly occupied homes over the past two decades, 54% are in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, and once you include the surrounding regional areas, 78% are in the three largest states.
Moore explains that this is a little above their share of the population, saying...
"Over the past two decades, new detached homes have been mostly built in the outer part of the cities, typically 30kms or more from the CBD.
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That’s unsurprising – detached homes need land, and there’s little available undeveloped land close to city centres."
Development of new detached houses is also quite spread out.
While the more than 10,000 new detached homes built in the past two decades are spread in 38 of the SA3 regions in Australia, new apartment development is much more concentrated.
Just 10 regions account for half of all newly occupied apartments in the past two decades, and these are all geographically small regions.
Melbourne City alone accounts for one-in-10 new apartments over the past two decades.
Moore explains...
"Unsurprisingly, these regions are mostly in inner-city areas, particularly in Melbourne and Brisbane.
In Melbourne, 44% of newly occupied apartments in the city over the past two decades were built in the 31 square kilometres confines of Melbourne City.
This share expands to 62% of all new apartments in Melbourne if you include the surrounding areas of Yarra, which includes the suburbs of Fitzroy, Richmond, and Abbotsford, and Port Phillip.
The pattern is similar in Brisbane.
The Inner and Inner North area – which together encompass an area stretching from the CBD and New Farm to Newmarket and Ascot – accounts for 52% of the newly occupied apartments in Brisbane.
Sydney is a bit different, though.
Unlike Melbourne and Brisbane, lots of apartments in Sydney are built in middle-ring areas located 10km to 30km from the city centre.
This covers suburbs like Parramatta, Auburn, Kogarah, and Ryde as well as closer-in but non-central areas in the 5km to 10km range, like Strathfield, Burwood, Ashfield, Chatswood, and Mascot."
Source: realestate.com.au Insights
