Grannimania

Brazil

Why is it becoming normal to live in someones backyard???

In Sydney Granny flat applications have been increasing exponentially over the years. There is no doubt that there is a need for housing. Sydney siders have been growing more and more comfortable with the idea of living in someones backyard.

Perhaps the answer is in the detail. Programmatically the granny flat is reasonable at approximately 60 square meters they are the same size as majority of the units in the market at the moment making the dwelling absolutely livable. The construction of a granny flat is cheap. At approximately $100k land owners can easily afford to build one in there backyard to help make repayments and even positively gear their property which could allow them financial freedom or even the opportunity to purchase another site. Financially they stack up and seem to be an investors dream,

The question that no one seems to be answering is, why are local councils holding back large scale developments if they know there is a crazy demand for more homes. Surely it makes sense to allow for greater height limits and Floor Space Ratio's in areas that can make use of Sydneys infrastructure. The closer we are to work the less travel we need to do, which will in turn mean less traffic on the roads. Surely we are better off as a community to have clusters of architecturally esteemed developments with fantastic common open spaces, controlled aesthetics, engineered to have little impact of the environment with mix use opportunities than simply reducing the size of our backyards.

For a city that is spending millions of tax payers money our future through research, infrastructure and transport why aren't we simply focusing on making our cities self sustainable and creating a vast network of mini cities. Instead we are still falling victim to urban sprawl. Soon our green fields will be pushed back so far away that we will be paying more for our milk then we are for our land.

Sydney, its too late to be a pessimist, we need to work on a solution and we need to do it now, Otherwise our children are going to have a hard time acquiring a property for $3,000,000 without a backyard.