Latest news with #microapartments
News.com.au
6 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Plans for 26sq m Perth micro apartments get green light
Plans have been approved for micro apartments in Perth, offering living spaces the size of two carpark spaces. The $22m project in Perth's inner suburbs includes apartments that are mostly 26sq m. 'Perth being turned into slum ghettos like London, where does this madness stop?' one online commenter opined. The apartments are among the smallest in Australia, measuring a square metre or two under the standard 'micro apartment' benchmark. The new 26sq m Perth apartments dwarf the 17sq m Bondi abode that sold for $511,000 in 2023. The newly approved Perth apartments are earmarked for an area about 1km north of the central business district, and just one block from Perth's major outdoor concert venue and rectangular sporting stadium. The building is set to house 88 self-contained flats – 64 of which are deemed micro – and the rest are 41sq m lofts. The building would also have four rooms specifically for guests of residents. All apartments will be fully furnished with a balcony, bed, kitchenette, bathroom, lounge and dining space. There is a proposed communal roof terrace, office space, gym and laundry. The WA Planning Commission used its discretion to overrule density rules for the area. The apartments are not for individual sale but would be leased by a dedicated property manager, with leases running between three months and three years. The developers say FIFO workers, students and young professionals without cars are their target market – for a building of 88 apartments, there are 25 car spaces. In its decision, released on Wednesday, the commission says objectors to the proposal took umbrage with the proposed building's height and the potential for sun to be blocked. 'Submissions in support were due to the underdeveloped nature of the area, design quality of the building and locational context of the site within close proximity to Perth CBD,' the commission report said. There are many established micro apartment complexes across Australia, and this latest project is not the first in Perth. But Perth is in the grips of a massive spike in property prices, on the same galactic trajectory as Adelaide and Brisbane. In 2024, the price of one-bedroom apartments in Perth rose 31 per cent – the largest national price rise in the category by a stretch.
ABC News
28-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Brisbane landlord says micro apartments help investors and tenants in housing crisis
A Brisbane real estate tycoon says he is helping landlords profit off the housing crisis using micro apartments. On Friday, Future Housing Taskforce chairman Kevin Doodney opened Brisbane's first "resi-rental", where a house is subdivided into five micro apartments with an onsite landlord. Each micro apartment is a self-contained unit with a bathroom and kitchenette, rented out for upwards of $400 per week. Mr Doodney said he had no ethical concerns about helping "eager investors to maximise off the Brisbane housing crisis". The High Yield Property Club founder said subdividing blocks into micro apartments helped increase the supply of affordable homes. "The ethics of it doesn't come into play because the tenants are winning, the owners are winning," Mr Doodney said. "We're trying to move people away from slum landlords to quality housing outcomes. "The cost of a powered tent site in the same suburb is more than what we rent this for." Former housing minister Mick de Brenni said the micro apartments would have been illegal if not for reforms passed by the previous Queensland government. "What we did was amend laws that made this sort of housing impossible to build, outdated laws that put a limit on the number of people not related to you that you could live with," he said. "We changed those laws to create more affordable housing and create a diversity of options so more people can find a safe place to live." Under the housing reforms, Queensland share houses do not need council permission even in low-density zones earmarked for single dwellings. In Brisbane, rooming houses are also exempt from infrastructure charges if they have five people or fewer. Tenants Queensland chief executive Penny Carr said micro apartments might suit some renters, but it was a stretch to call them affordable housing. "It's definitely not affordable for a single person or a single parent on a Jobseeker payment. "A couple on Jobseeker payments would be paying about 50 per cent of their income on rent." Retired couple Robyn and Rodger Macqueen bought Brisbane's first resi-rental for $1.4 million and will be moving into it in two weeks. Mr Macqueen said he did not mind the idea of living with tenants, since it would bring additional income in retirement. "We figured, if we're happy enough to have other people living there, why wouldn't we live there?" he said.
