Apartment sizes are growing while the floor space of houses have remained roughly the same in a sign that unit dwellers - including downsizers - are demanding more living space.
The latest Commsec Annual Home Size Report finds that the average floor area of apartments had grown from 128.8 sq/m in 2018-19 to 138.3 sq/m in 2020-21, an increase of 7.4 per cent.
Victoria is now building Australia’s largest apartments, which average 156.8 sq/m, while Tasmania is building the nation’s smallest, at 91 sq/m. Other States to have larger average apartment sizes include South Australia (149 sq/m) and Western Australia (141.3 sq/m).
Over the same time, house sizes have remained stable - from 228.8 square metres in 2018-19 to 229.3 square metres in 2020-21.
A KnightFrank report released in October stated that, with investor activity comparatively subdued due to COVID-19, downsizers are dominating the upper echelons of the Australian apartment market. These downsizers are forcing developers to build a higher proportion of three-bedroom units in their projects.
This follows research from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute released in early 2020 which found that the perfect downsizer apartment was either two or three bedrooms, with a small garden or outdoor area.
“COVID-19 may have influenced home size, although it is still relatively early days in the construction cycle,” the CommSec report found.
“The experience with COVID-19 has certainly caused more families to look for bigger homes and caused others to add extra rooms to existing homes.
“More Aussies want to achieve a situation where family members are able to live, work and relax at home.”
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