There’s no question that the Australian property market is tough to crack. A 2024 study described our nation’s major housing markets as “severely unaffordable” and ranked Australia as having the second least affordable housing market globally.

State governments have been slow to tackle the affordability crisis. In Western Australia, where property vacancy rates are at 0.6 percent, the state government has pledged $843 million to increase its social housing target to 5000 homes. In New South Wales, the state government has said 377,000 new homes need to be built by 2029 to meet demand, but there are few details about what sort of homes these will be.

Samantha Reece, director of Australian Apartment Advocacy, says it’s likely the bulk of these new homes will be apartments. This represents a shift in the Australian dream of a house and garden, and buyers may be wary of investing, given stats that suggest more than half of new apartment builds have defects.

Reece says a recent think tank, hosted by the advocacy group in August, attempted to get to the bottom of how to make affordable apartments more attractive to buyers, developers, governments and facility managers.

“The main focus was on affordability,” Reece says. “Why isn’t the NSW state government fast-tracking approvals for projects that have an aspect of affordable or social housing?”

The difficulty with the current approvals process can make affordable housing seem unprofitable for developers. Likewise, there is resistance from lenders to engage with different models of ownership that might remove barriers for buyers.

“One thing we’re seeing in Europe a lot is community land titles, where you actually have a land parcel, you build the property on there, and people pay a fee to get in. But banks don’t lend on those kinds of models.”

The think tank also discussed the impact of green buildings and more sustainable approaches to apartment design, but Reece says this isn’t yet a major factor for buyers.

“Research has shown that only 25 percent of people bought their apartment because of the sustainability elements within it and they typically tend to be your younger age group and baby boomers. What’s most important for a family is that they can live within their means.”

One challenge in building more apartment complexes that contain a mix of high-end living and social housing might be in managing a diverse range of occupants. Reece says she doesn’t see this as a problem.

“We work closely with Facility Management Australia and we’re finding that facility managers are becoming much more tuned into apartment living as it’s something they haven’t necessarily been trained in. But the reality of the matter is that the majority of people who are in social housing nowadays are single women who are over 55 with no superannuation.”

One area where facility managers can play an important role is in building a sense of community within apartment complexes, Reece says.

“I think it’s an evolving role, where the facility manager is actually allowing people to connect because they tend to be on-site more than a strata manager, for example.”

The same is true for cleaning contractors. As more Australians move from houses to apartments, facility managers and cleaners can help ease the adjustment to high-density living.

“Security is something that facility managers should be thinking about in terms of CCTV and security cameras and that kind of thing,” Reece says.

“But I think presentation of your apartment building is paramount and I think that’s where building managers and cleaning managers can be proactive with owners. We know 60 percent of apartment owners come from a house and don’t know what it is like to actually live in an apartment. Building managers can help.”

Find out more about Australian Apartment Advocacy: aaadvocacy.net.au

Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash.