Latest news with #Judd Johnston
News.com.au
6 days ago
- General
- News.com.au
‘What a joke': Tradie's video highlights grim new Aussie housing trend
As more homes continue to be built in some of Australia's biggest cities, a new trend has emerged – prioritising value over space. More homes are being squeezed in to create suburbs in urban sprawl corridors, with developers really making the most of every inch of land, resulting in new builds that are practically touching. Melbourne-based carpenter, Judd Johnston, recently left Aussies gobsmacked after sharing a video from a site he was working on, showing mere centimetres between the house that was being built and the neighbouring home. 'So you're telling me it is going to take me 13 years to save for a house that's this close to the neighbour,' he captioned the clip. The TikTok has accumulated more than 264,000 views, sparking comments from horrified social media users. 'How is that legal?' was one of the top questions people were asking. Local council and state zoning regulations typically determine how close a house can be built to the boundary line. There are also cases where zero-lot boundary developments can be approved, meaning a structure can be built directly on or very close to the boundary lines. 'I love hearing my neighbours breathe 24/7,' one person wrote on the video. 'This is insane,' another said, with a third adding: 'Might as well share a bedroom at this point.' Others questioned why, at that point, you wouldn't just join the homes. 'At that point it should've just been a duplex. What a joke,' one person said. Mr Johnston has seen a rise in these types of developments, believing this housing trend is wiping out the Australian dream of having a big backyard with a clothes lines and a cubby house. 'Once the house is actually finished in terms of the frame, there's only enough room for brick and whatever material is going on the outside,' he told Yahoo News. 'By the time that's finished, I've seen a lot of them literally touching.' The young tradie said housing is being maximised for profit – as house sizes continue to go down, prices go up. John Brockhoff, national policy director for the Planning Institute of Australia, believes the pattern reflects wider issues in Australia's housing system. 'Australia is seeing growing pressure to increase housing supply in our cities, but this must be matched by a commitment to good planning and urban design,' he told 'We're seeing a growing mismatch between the size of our households and the type of housing that's being built. 'And, while the types of household sizes on average have been getting smaller, we continue to build some of the biggest homes in the world and this really raises concerns about how efficiently we use our land, and our infrastructure, and how affordable and sustainable our housing is.' Mr Brockhoff said the phenomenon centres mostly around capitalising on the detached block – with homeowners wanting to get a return on the asset value of their land through an investment in a detached home. Many Aussie families continue to have a preference for a freestanding property on a suburban block, he said. According to recent building activity data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the average size of Australian dwellings has been on a steady decline over the past 15 years. In 2022/23, detached homes comprised 64 per cent of all new dwelling completions, though lot sizes continue to shrink. The median capital city lot size was 391 metres squared in late 2023, while the national average for a new detached house was 250 metres squared as of March 2024. 'We tend to see that higher density in places where you can trade off that internal amenity for having a better living environment outside,' Mr Brockhoff said. 'There is also a risk of reducing trade canopy and amenity on the individual sites, but good planning makes … good access to public transport and community facilities.' Newer builds, especially those in areas like Western Sydney, need to be constructed to manage the heat, he said. 'Planning has a really important role, not just about building more homes, but building the right types of homes and the right type of places with access to services, transport and green space,' Mr Brockhoff said. 'And where that planning is done, we've got much more potential for people to make a choice.' Pictures of suburbs, such as The Ponds in Sydney's west, have emerged over the past few years showing blocks of identical freestanding homes all extremely close together. The homes pictured are crammed in with small setbacks and street verges, tiny backyards and black roofs and driveways. In many images, there are also no nearby public parks or open green spaces visible. They are mostly four-bedroom, three-bathroom properties, boasting about 280 square metres of internal living space on 300 square-metre blocks. In promotional materials, outside spaces are referred to as courtyards, not backyards, and they measure six metres by nine metres.
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Young Aussie tradie calls out bleak new housing trend: 'We're seeing it a lot more'
It's becoming increasingly difficult for Australians to get on the property ladder as limited space in cities pushes costs higher and urban sprawl further out. The growing problem is prompting a sad property trend, and tradie Judd Johnston told Yahoo News he stares the reality square in the face every day. The Australian dream of expansive backyards with clothes lines and cubby houses is long gone, the Melbourne-based carpenter said. Now, the majority of Australians can only look forward to owning new homes that literally touch their neighbour's. "We're seeing it a lot more compared to back in the day," Judd said. "Once the house is actually finished in terms of the frame, there's only enough room for brick and whatever material is going on the outside... By the time that's finished, I've seen a lot of them literally touching." Footage captured by Judd shows several examples of homes under construction that are centimetres away from the neighbouring property. He questioned why Australians are now being challenged more than ever before to own a home, only for the size and features of the property to be less than before. How close a house can be built to the boundary line is determined by local council and state zoning regulations, but in many regions, the garages at least can be built right up to the boundary, or the whole house if a zero-lot home development is approved. Aussies paying 'more and more' for 'smaller and smaller' homes Cities across the country are seeing a significant rise in the number of 'micro-lots' sprouting up in their outskirts, with developers hoping to make the most out of the land they acquire. Edwin Almeida has been running a property consultancy business in Sydney for decades and told Yahoo News recently that the standard block of land for a home has shrunk. "We went from your standard 750 square metre block of land to 520, then we went down to 360 square metres and then right down to 240," he told Yahoo. "In my day, a 240 square metre block of land, that's what you got with a townhouse, not a free-standing house." He recently spotted the trend of homes being close together in Bargo, a suburb on the fringes of Sydney, claiming the homes under construction there were so close "you can shake hands with your next-door neighbour when you go to the sh**ter". 🌳 Homeowner 'frightened' to go into her garden following council's gum tree decision 😲 Sad discovery near housing estate prompts stern warning to Aussies 🕯️ Roads dark for months as sinister $100 million trend escalates Judd echoed this sentiment, claiming profit reigns supreme rather than any other factor — even though Australian houses, as we know them, are shifting dramatically. "Housing is being maximised for profit... we're just paying more and more for a house that's essentially just getting smaller and smaller," he said. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics also indicates the shrinking of block sizes, with the average size reducing by nearly a hundred square metres in the last decade. Yahoo News has reported on many incidents showing how this demand for limited space is reshaping Australian suburbs, like a resident in Sydney's Tallawong who pointed out so-called half-width streets in a developing suburb, with roads visibly narrower in comparison to what we're used to. Last year, a developer pushed plans for a six-storey apartment building to be built on a block of land the same width of a parking bay in the Sydney's inner west. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
Yahoo
31-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tradie reveals sad property reality for young Aussies
It's becoming increasingly difficult for Australians to get on the property ladder as limited space in cities pushes costs higher and urban sprawl further out. The growing problem is prompting a sad property trend, and tradie Judd Johnston told Yahoo News he stares the reality square in the face every day. The Australian dream of expansive backyards with clothes lines and cubby houses is long gone, the Melbourne-based carpenter said. Now, the majority of Australians can only look forward to owning new homes that literally touch their neighbour's. "We're seeing it a lot more compared to back in the day," Judd said. "Once the house is actually finished in terms of the frame, there's only enough room for brick and whatever material is going on the outside... By the time that's finished, I've seen a lot of them literally touching." Footage captured by Judd shows several examples of homes under construction that are centimetres away from the neighbouring property. He questioned why Australians are now being challenged more than ever before to own a home, only for the size and features of the property to be less than before. How close a house can be built to the boundary line is determined by local council and state zoning regulations, but in many regions, the garages at least can be built right up to the boundary, or the whole house if a zero-lot home development is approved. Aussies paying 'more and more' for 'smaller and smaller' homes Cities across the country are seeing a significant rise in the number of 'micro-lots' sprouting up in their outskirts, with developers hoping to make the most out of the land they acquire. Edwin Almeida has been running a property consultancy business in Sydney for decades and told Yahoo News recently that the standard block of land for a home has shrunk. "We went from your standard 750 square metre block of land to 520, then we went down to 360 square metres and then right down to 240," he told Yahoo. "In my day, a 240 square metre block of land, that's what you got with a townhouse, not a free-standing house." He recently spotted the trend of homes being close together in Bargo, a suburb on the fringes of Sydney, claiming the homes under construction there were so close "you can shake hands with your next-door neighbour when you go to the sh**ter". 🌳 Homeowner 'frightened' to go into her garden following council's gum tree decision 😲 Sad discovery near housing estate prompts stern warning to Aussies 🕯️ Roads dark for months as sinister $100 million trend escalates Judd echoed this sentiment, claiming profit reigns supreme rather than any other factor — even though Australian houses, as we know them, are shifting dramatically. "Housing is being maximised for profit... we're just paying more and more for a house that's essentially just getting smaller and smaller," he said. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics also indicates the shrinking of block sizes, with the average size reducing by nearly a hundred square metres in the last decade. Yahoo News has reported on many incidents showing how this demand for limited space is reshaping Australian suburbs, like a resident in Sydney's Tallawong who pointed out so-called half-width streets in a developing suburb, with roads visibly narrower in comparison to what we're used to. Last year, a developer pushed plans for a six-storey apartment building to be built on a block of land the same width of a parking bay in the Sydney's inner west. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
