Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Are you building a 86Mar 21, 2012 10:49 am zeitgeber Yes, definitely high density mega high rise is more eco friendly like those in NY, Tokyo, HK, Shanghai, and Singapore.... NIMBY - just not in my backyard thanks. The problem is that people go and build a McMansion in a suburb 10km from the city, where high density properties are needed, and then use this selfishness to justify their wants over the needs of the many. It's all good if people want large homes, but they can do that further from the central business districts. High density housing is required as you get closer to major capital cities. If you choose to have a low-density dwelling close to the CBD, then you need to put up with what's good for the masses. Go nuts building your massive properties in Cranbourne, Keilor etc. You don't see them popping up in Collingwood and Brunswick for good reason. Building a Delta 21 at Craigieburn - http://homeofzero.blogspot.com.au/ Deposit: 26/02. Contract: 22/05. Settlement: 29/05. Site start: 18/10. Re: Are you building a 87Mar 21, 2012 10:59 am akashra zeitgeber Yes, definitely high density mega high rise is more eco friendly like those in NY, Tokyo, HK, Shanghai, and Singapore.... NIMBY - just not in my backyard thanks. The problem is that people go and build a McMansion in a suburb 10km from the city, where high density properties are needed, and then use this selfishness to justify their wants over the needs of the many. It's all good if people want large homes, but they can do that further from the central business districts. High density housing is required as you get closer to major capital cities. If you choose to have a low-density dwelling close to the CBD, then you need to put up with what's good for the masses. Go nuts building your massive properties in Cranbourne, Keilor etc. You don't see them popping up in Collingwood and Brunswick for good reason. I wish there were better integration of different housing types in the same suburb. So rather than simply a suburb of 3-4 bedrooms houses only, there should be a mix of mid-level apartments (1,2,3 & 4 bed), a variety of townhouses and freestanding houses & lots of parks. Because what has effectively happened in Sydney is that people are growing old in empty 4 bedroom houses but they won't move because it is next to impossible to find a smaller residence in the same suburb. I have seen this many times with my parent's friends and my IL's social circle. They have houses that are now too big for them (empty nesters), but they are not going to downsize because it would mean leaving the suburb that they have lived in for the past 30+ years. And you can't blame them. As a result, it is hard for new families to get into the suburb, so they look further out, still building a 3-5 bedroom homes. 2010, June : Land bought (1700sqm, battleaxe block). That's it so far! We're in the design phase .... Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 88Mar 21, 2012 12:18 pm You'll also find that there a number of older suburbs quite close to the CBD's that will fight tooth & nail to stop apartment buildings & subdivision from occurring in their suburb, regardless of what is best for "the masses". Where I used to live (in Malvern East, Vic), there were very few rentals. Nearly all were on large house blocks (close to a quarter acre) & owner-occupied. The median house price for the area remained high, largely because of these factors. Its an unfortunate fact that very few people want to live next to an apartment block (particularly if mainly rental ), so as a consequence, the area around it devalues when this happens. I'm not being prejudiced, I'm simply stating a fact. I think it is inevitable that these suburbs will eventually submit to high density housing, & become a thing of the past, but at the same time, I understand the occupiers of these suburb's reluctance to embrace it with open arms. "Whoever says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain!" Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 89Mar 21, 2012 1:12 pm kjag Why do people have to be so judgmental? Personally I don't want five bathrooms in my house, but we have neighbors who built one of thoe houses because they have three daughters and they want them to live at home as adults. With housing becoming less and less affordable, this could be considered good forward planning as it will function well as a multigenerational home. What, they still cant share a bathroom? Its a small price to pay for mooching of your parents dont you think? How is that helping them learn to achieve anything on their own and appreciate the reward of their own efforts? Also, kids living at home as adults has a bit if a "loser" vibe to it. How embarrassing for the kids as young adults. Children are so babied and week and reliant on their mummies and daddies these days.... Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 91Mar 21, 2012 1:39 pm tjilpi While children may stay at home in a separate self conatined units (ie 3 apartments over 3 levels containing 3 generations, such as in Europe), it is probably wishful thinking of parents to think all grown up children will want to stay in a house shared with their parents. Very true. Plus, once married, which set of parents miss out on housing the couple? It's not going to happen for some parents anyway. Most couples do want their own space, their own home, even if they love their parents to the moon and back. PS_Sirocco7 kjag Why do people have to be so judgmental? Personally I don't want five bathrooms in my house, but we have neighbors who built one of thoe houses because they have three daughters and they want them to live at home as adults. With housing becoming less and less affordable, this could be considered good forward planning as it will function well as a multigenerational home. What, they still cant share a bathroom? Its a small price to pay for mooching of your parents dont you think? How is that helping them learn to achieve anything on their own and appreciate the reward of their own efforts? Also, kids living at home as adults has a bit if a "loser" vibe to it. How embarrassing for the kids as young adults. Children are so babied and week and reliant on their mummies and daddies these days.... In some cultures, extended families living together is actually the norm. It's not a big deal and if the house is being fully utilised, I think it's a great way to go. Obviously if it's not working, people move out. I expect much of your position on this will directly relate to your own cultural expectations & upbringing, your finances and the intrinsic desire to either have a bit of personal space or share. As such, I do agree that planning a house such that every person has their own bathroom and/or living area is a bit excessive (particularly for my budget, LOL!). Hubby and I share a bathroom, I reckon the kids can as well. If they are so desperate to have their own bathroom, living room etc when they are adults, they can buy or build their own home. Preferably not too far away. 2010, June : Land bought (1700sqm, battleaxe block). That's it so far! We're in the design phase .... Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 92Mar 21, 2012 2:05 pm tjilpi Kez...chicken. There can be areas of all types of housing within one suburb. People's reluctance to have high density housing near them is based on the assumption that they are mostly rentals and therefore attract a certain type of resident. This is not the case. There is a new higher density housing complex smack bang in the middle of malvern, right on indulgence street (High St). From the board it is aimed at older (retiree) residents and they are not cheap. I doubt they will be attracting any 'rabble' but allow long term residents of Malvern to stay in their suburb when they need to downsize, or have less property maintenance. I don't disagree with you (you're sorta preaching to the converted). There are many examples of successful high density dwellings (Port Melbourne, for instance). I am merely pointing out that there are some niche areas that will not welcome it. Unfortunately, with regards to the assumption that high density housing means rental & therefore riff raff - perception can be just as damaging if enough people believe it, & have the same end result as if it were reality - house values still go down. "Whoever says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain!" Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 93Mar 21, 2012 5:52 pm PS_Sirocco7 Also, kids living at home as adults has a bit if a "loser" vibe to it. How embarrassing for the kids as young adults. I don't see how just moving out and being able to take care of yourself or your own family can be considered anything special. Most people can generally do that. It's like the Chris Rock joke (modified for the site): Edited by Forum Support. Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 94Mar 22, 2012 1:06 pm PS_Sirocco7 What, they still cant share a bathroom? Its a small price to pay for mooching of your parents dont you think? How is that helping them learn to achieve anything on their own and appreciate the reward of their own efforts? Also, kids living at home as adults has a bit if a "loser" vibe to it. How embarrassing for the kids as young adults. Children are so babied and week and reliant on their mummies and daddies these days.... Ahhh there you go the judgemental HomeOne that we all love! You are entitled to your opinion as everyone is but it cracks me up that you think that staying at home with your parents has a "loser vibe" to it. In our case staying at home until we were 25 (me) and 30 (DH) meant that we were able to buy a house (me), buy land and pay it off completely prior to building a house (DH) as well as overseas trips each year and then starting our own business which now is a fantastic success. The staying at home resulted in us being able to save good deposits and therefore borrow less. Which in turn resulted in great profit margins when we sold both of those properties. Which again in turn meant that we purchased our dream land and built our dream home. Along the way we have also accumulated four rental properties. This hard work and dedication to ensuring we will be secure in our future is something that we hope will rub off onto our children. So you may think that we are "losers" but I will happily look at where we have come from, where we currently stand and what beliefs we can teach our children - ie that hard work and a dream to take a chance no matter what your age will lead you to a fulfilling and prosperous life. IMO Some things are worth waiting for. Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 95Mar 22, 2012 1:42 pm ok... maybe "loser" is too strong a word to use here and I apologise. However, to me, 25 is borderline but 30 is ridiculous. I know each to their own and if my kids needed to stay home to save their $$ for property then Id be fine with it too. I'd never let them take advantage of the situation though and I would never over-accommodate my house to suit their wants. Basically. at the end of the day, it is our, (the parents) house and the kids can damn well appreciate what they do have because they are lucky to have it at all. I moved out of home when I was 17. (My partner was 15). I learned to do everything for myself like cook, clean, pay bills and rent all while I finished yr 12 and then entered the workforce on minimal wages. I was broke the whole time but my independence was invaluable and I was never a burden on anyone. After yr 12 I Landed mediocre jobs for several years then went into business for myself around 10 years ago which has taken right off and has made me a lot of $$. I borrow from banks and haven't traveled hardly at all but I dont care. I dont have the urge to be wealthy, just well off and once Ive set my self up then I will be in the position to help others. Plus when I kick the bucket, my kids will get it all anyway so either way, they should be set up and should find pride in the fact that they did it themselves without the help of mummy and daddy. I believe building a house with 5+ bathrooms because your kids MIGHT stay at home as adults is just greedy and stupid. Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 96Mar 22, 2012 1:53 pm We have 2024sqm so we didnt want something that looked dwarfed by the size of the block. I dont consider it a McMansion but i keep being told its quite large Our house is 38sq's (approx 350sqm) and its just for 2 of us and our Labrador. 4 bedrooms, a study (mancave ), theatre room, family and lounge room, 3 bathrooms, alfresco etc and i think we will be pretty set We are hoping resale will be very good which was our main concern when purchasing everything we have akashra It's all good if people want large homes, but they can do that further from the central business districts. High density housing is required as you get closer to major capital cities. If you choose to have a low-density dwelling close to the CBD, then you need to put up with what's good for the masses. Go nuts building your massive properties in Cranbourne, Keilor etc. You don't see them popping up in Collingwood and Brunswick for good reason. Here is where i think you have it wrong.... I live in Sydney so will base my disagreement with your reply around Sydney Sydney wasnt designed for the population it has now. Our roads dont cope and the transport system doesnt cope either. To build high density housing only causes more problems as you have even more people trying to make use of the already over loaded roads and transport systems. Instead of trying to cram everybody into the one CBD, i think the government should be offering incentives to people and businesses to move away from the CBD in an effort to create a second CBD somewhere else. Should that be Parramatta or even further out, i dont know, but its what i think should be done. I have seen a huge increase in traffic caused by one new block of units on my street, and there are 3 more to come, and you know what, it ticks me right off that its happening. A nice quite street that use to work quite well at 7am in the morning has now become a traffic snarl because someone got gready and wanted to stick 200 units on what once was a nice quiet residential street. Have they done anything about improving the roads or even more so the public transport, not at all. As a consequence you either wait for 8 buses to pass you by with no seats or you stand for 45 minutes to get to work on an over crowded bus. I want to have land, i want a big house, but unfortunately i dont any spare kidneys or a money tree out the back to pay for a block near where i need to travel to for work. Instead i am forced to commute using the already over crowded public transport to the only CBD that Sydney has. If i could get a decent job that paid decent money close to where i am building i will take it. Have i looked, no i havent just yet, but time will tell if i can find one. My guess is i wont find something with the stability and security that i have now So how you can say that the answer is building up is beyond me. We have a country that has so much unused land that there is no reason to build up. Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 97Mar 22, 2012 2:48 pm Supporting infastructure always seems to forgotten when projects are given the green light in areas that are not equipped to deal with the added burden. The Gold Coast's population has increased dramatically in recent times & many people work in Brisbane, yet there is still only really one road connecting the two (the M1), which is grossly inadequate. Every city seems to suffer from this ridiculous lack of foresight. "Whoever says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain!" Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 99Mar 22, 2012 3:17 pm I'll take your word for it, Brad. I always get horribly lost in Sydney - road signs seem to cease halfway to wherever it is you're trying to get to. Must remember to one day get a GPS, or a map that is post 1990 "Whoever says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain!" Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 100Mar 22, 2012 3:24 pm kezacheekychicken Supporting infastructure always seems to forgotten when projects are given the green light in areas that are not equipped to deal with the added burden. The Gold Coast's population has increased dramatically in recent times & many people work in Brisbane, yet there is still only really one road connecting the two (the M1), which is grossly inadequate. Every city seems to suffer from this ridiculous lack of foresight. That one road is MASSIVE improvement to what was there 10 years ago and has been planned for some growth. And in comparison to Sydney, it is positively light years ahead. Brisband has dedicated busways which are minimally impacted by freeway traffic. Sydney has nothing like that. Agree with BradS that while it is dreamworthy to say medium to high dense accommodation should be encouraged in cities, Sydney would need some serious infrastructure work (including reclaimation of existing properties) and the government simply does not have the money (or foresight) to go through with something like that. PS_Sirocco7 I believe building a house with 5+ bathrooms because your kids MIGHT stay at home as adults is just greedy and stupid. Yes, we get your point. But calling people greedy and stupid ain't going help and was/is unnecessary. A simple "I don't agree with large houses" without the insults would have been sufficient. 2010, June : Land bought (1700sqm, battleaxe block). That's it so far! We're in the design phase .... Looking to start the journey of becoming an owner builder in SA. Feeling pretty (overly) confident on the building and construction details, but really struggling to find… 0 8419 No. It's not original. Circa early to mid 90s would be my guess and maybe even as late as early 2000s 1 6632 A question. Im in Queensland and building a new home. We managed to reach practical completion 6 weeks ago but we haven't heard any date for handover yet. Who should we… 0 5807 |