Posted on 03/21/2017 7:04:25 AM PDT by Twotone
With housing affordability a huge concern for many Sydney residents, one organisation is offering low- to middle-income earners the opportunity to live more cheaply in smaller spaces.
Evolve Housing's initiative has already seen single people and couples making the switch to one-bedroom, one-bathroom places that are close to work but do not hurt the hip pocket.
But can people actually live in a tiny apartment? The ABC took a tour inside one to see what it would be like.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc.net.au ...
I’ve been saying this since 1988: It’s not that prices are so high. It is that money is worth so little.
Been to Sydney. Boring.
What’s funny is that in many cities the officials went after evil landlords by passing regulations requiring a minimum square footage for apartments. Just as with minimum wage, a tiny apartment isn’t supposed to house a family of 8. It’s supposed to give cheap housing for the young single. My first apartment was a one room apt with a kitchenette & bathroom. It was cheap & near where I worked. It allowed me to save money & prepare myself for when I was ready to buy my first house. This kind of housing is perfect for near campuses where there are lots of young singles looking for a cheap living space.
We moved from a five bedroom, three bath home in the Seattle area to a 950 sq ft home on 32 acres in rural KY. The things we miss: walk in closet, large bedroom, guest room for when family visits.
But that’s about it. The design is absurdly efficient and there are only two of us (empty nesters). in the loft we have a media room and an office with two computer workstations (one a laptop station). We have a large kitchen and living room combination, and adding a nice island dramatically increased the efficiency of the kitchen. We have a bed and bath.
It’s really all you need, especially if you have a large garage / out building. I suppose if the house and a postage stamp lot was all we had, we’d need more room, but we spend so much time on the property that this size is fine.
Yeah, as long as it is, in fact, cheap.
;-)
Been to Sydney. Boring.
16 square metres is about 172 Sq ft. Yikes
Affordable??? Not hardly
True, true. But that is another downside of regulation. It drives up the cost of construction & landlords don’t want to wait forever to recover their costs & profit from their asset.
I keep remembering a ‘garage’ my husband & I built on our former property. It was a kit that we got through Home Depot (I think). We had to have someone come in & do the foundation, & we had help with the roof. But the kit itself was set up to meet Florida hurricane standards. It came with 3 50 lb boxes of nails & screws! Definitely overkill for a simple 12 x 24 garage that we used for our garden tools & supplies.
My camper it bigger than that I think!
At least (unlike tiny houses), it’s got a toilet that does not do double-duty as shrubbery.
It looks like a prison cell, and it’s $300 per week?
This tiny living space fad is not going to last. Apartments and living spaces that small and austere are going to lead to an increase in depression cases. Mark my word.
Arthritis forced us to move to a two bedroom ranch style condo six years ago and I still grieve my backyard, deck and firepit.
My home office is 24’ x 24’ = 576 Square Feet or 21 square meters.
The space could easily be enough for me to live comfortably if arranged and furnished properly. The sterile depiction absent the necessary junk for living is off putting.
“The key is that these are key workers, so they have to be able to live close to where they work to create that diverse community.”
Huh?
There’s a vibrant “tiny house” movement in the US, adherents reveling in the life of occupying a sparse-yet-elegant 100 sq ft or so. That’s the floorspace of a standard office cubicle.
If that’s how you want to live, go for it.
The Left needs to get out of their way, not making “minimum dwelling space” requirements (enforced thru what is ultimately a death threat) imposed on those content with sacrificing space & cost for location, location, and location.
The Right needs to remember that individual rights include living in a ridiculously expensive (per square foot) space that is ridiculously small (for some standards) amid a ridiculously high population density.
It’s a free market solution: people want nice spaces in premium locations, can’t afford a normal space, so someone refits a building stuffed full of micro-apartments ... and it sells out. Win!
“This tiny living space fad is not going to last.”
It’s been lasting a long time.
Location, location, location ... vs income and whatever constitutes necessities.
104 years of inflation will do that.
And it is devalued about 8% annually, thanks to magic of Central Banking.
My plastic model stash and work area is bigger than that
And it is devalued about 8% annually, thanks to magic of Central Banking.
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