Housing Choice beyond Giant Boxes of Ticky-tack

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"Housing choice needed". That's a headline in today's editorial in The West (14 Jan 11). The story begins, "Housing Perth's growing population has for years meant more big homes on big blocks."

Where does the editor live?!

Decades ago, the standard Perth suburban block was a "quarter acre", just over 1000 square metres. Today, if you own 1000 m2 you will be subdividing... Dividing the block into two or possibly more blocks And each of those smaller blocks will soon hold a McMansion.

In Subiaco, for example, from the list of houses for sale or recently sold:

• 109 Redfern Street $1,395,000... 3 bedroom ... with full height extension ... Wide timber deck at rear ... Double lock up garage ... 460 sqm block. One eighth of an acre, McMansion, pocket handkerchief garden.
  
• 25 Jasmine Avenue $1,720,000 ... 303m2 corner block ... three upstairs bedrooms ... double garage ... generously sized kitchen ... three expansive living areas within the home ... lovely rear garden. On the Google Maps aerial photo the "lovely rear garden" is the size of an average bedroom. And it's on the corner of two roads.
  
• 205 Townshend Road $1,695,000 ... 4 bedroom 3 ensuite (+ powder room), 4 wc , 2 laundry, 2 kitchen residence. Not willing to tell you how small the block is. Google Maps shows it so close to a mirror image that the two may be connected. There is a small area of brick paving and a "garden" large enough for one palm tree.
  

Okay... Subiaco has always had small blocks... But that's what's really available now: tiny blocks of land almost completely filled with enormous McMansions.

When The West's editors wrote, "big homes on big blocks", were they simply typing faster than they could think? Or is 300 to 400 m2 the new "big" in block sizes.

Here's a good idea...

Yes, we need "housing choice". Forget about the "smaller blocks, more profit" rhetoric. Consider the range of choices that people would actually like to have...

There are plenty of people who want large houses with small or no gardens. Sitting inside a large, air-conditioned house can be more comfortable than sitting outside in an enclosed, wind-proofed, sun-trap garden.

There are other people who want small houses with little or no garden. Not everyone wants to look after a garden, no matter how small it is. Some of these people are happy living above and below identical units in a stack of self-contained units.

Yet "choice" should also include blocks up to and larger than the "quarter acre block". That's what choice is all about... "Choice" does not mean, all small houses on tiny blocks of land. "Choice" should include large and small houses, on large and small blocks.

Of course, we already have blocks of land which are large enough for large gardens as well as for a very large house.

What we need is housing choice which includes large or small houses on large blocks -- and which are affordable for people whose income is less than a billion a year.

Is that impossible?

Of course not! All it needs is some thinking outside our preconceived and self-imposed limitations.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com