@Isobel, I agree with everything in that article, I sense & applaud the tone of anger from the author.
Damned right, we should all be up in arms about how we've been duped out of backyards for kids to play in, the front garden which used to be a show of Australian pride, the loss of an area for fruit trees & chooks etc etc.
In a new estate that was going up nearby years ago, I saw a single continuous concrete pour, that was for 2 adjoining homes. Not only that, they had a common wall & no parapet for ceiling fire abatement. When we built in '75, the closest you could build to the perimeter, was 3' if there were no windows, or 4' with windows. The idiocy continued in that the Southern house, had no provision for environmentally savvy North facing windows. Are developers devoid of intelligence, or is profit the driving force behind the bastardisation of the Australian dream? I say YES to the latter. To think that these blights on commonsense are less affordable than years gone by, yet are being snapped up by desperate consumers, is mindboggling.
I could continue my rant, but I'll cut it short, & pass the baton.
Having said that, I saw a show on TV which featured a luxury home builder, who set rigid guidelines/restrictions that the client must agree to, or they wouldn't take them on.
If there was a view to be had, they'd maximise it, but not at the expense of energy efficiency through bad orientation. They only build homes that are elegant, & environmentally efficient, & the particular home on show, worked for multiple generations. In a word, it was brilliant. It had aged access to cover the unexpected down the track, & an intelligent layout maximising privacy, though welcoming to accommodate family stays, whether they be planned, or longer term to cover emergencies. No stone was unturned, & it embraced the future.
OK, there had to be a downside, & there was, the price. Would you believe the build, not including land was only $220K?
Let's wind the clock back to '75, when we built for $28Kish, dual income working 40 hour week each (80 hours total), & play the inflation game. The ultra stylish, futureproof featured build is in dollars, < 8 times the price of ours.
I don't have accountancy accreditation, nor do I have the gift that our all embracing parliamentarians have, who when handed a portfolio that they have zero background, or understanding of, dictate our future, so could someone please explain to me what has transpired over the last 40ish years?
I don't want to confuse the issue, but back in the early '70s, the asking price for an expansive block with a view, & boasting a pioneering first, of underground power (Foxfield, South Australia), was a very expensive $7000. Foergo the view, corner block $2400, normal street frontage, for $1700.
How does that stack up now?
Here's the rub, multiply the land price of the street frontage block that I spoke of without a view ($1700) by 10 (not the < 8 times of building), & I promise you that you would not get a plot bigger than an indoor toilet, within 100Km from the CBD.
Be angry.
