High density living is a growing phenomenon across NSW, with people looking to live as close as possible to the heart of the city’s action, entertainment, and culture. More than 70% of new residential buildings built in Sydney last year alone were classed as medium or high density. That means there is plenty of demand from owners and tenants alike for central and convenient housing.
Bolstering the popularity of Strata across the state.
The increasing popularity of strata title has been driven by a few main factors:
- conversion of existing buildings in single ownership to strata title
- the countries population growth
- new development and
- government policies to promote building up (rather than out) within existing urban areas
Enabling strata title ownership of existing developments, especially apartment buildings, by dividing the development into smaller units, reinvigorates local property markets by making the apartments more tradeable, consumable, and accessible to a broader and larger market.
The use of strata title in medium and high development in countries like Australia has been driven largely by an embedded cultural drive for home ownership. This driving force, when combined with decreasing affordability especially over the last decade, has meant that apartment living has become an important entry point into the housing market for many Australians and an option for older Australians looking to downsize.
The increasing significance of strata title development is illustrated by the fact that over $AUD350 billion worth of property is now estimated to be managed under such schemes in NSW alone, with 1.12 million people living in strata title schemes.
According to data contained in the Australasian Strata Insights 2020 report (by City Futures Research Centre), from the time strata title property ownership was first introduced in Australia 60 years ago, the number of people choosing to live in strata has continued to accelerate.
From a few small clusters in inner urban areas in NSW in 1961, strata developments are now an important feature of the housing landscape in NSW, with almost 900 thousand strata and community-titled properties in the state alone.
The report, which provides a comprehensive picture of the strata industry in Australia and provides an invaluable tool for policy-makers instigating changes to the framework for the strata industry, shows 15% of the total NSW population now reside in apartments, villas, units or townhouses.
Strata living is often convenient, cost-effective and can provide services to residents that they would not otherwise have access to.
If policy drivers of population growth supported by migration, and urban consolidation in existing areas continue, we can expect strata developments to play an important role in urban development for many years to come.