City Futures Blog

News and research in housing and urban policy, from Australia’s leading urban policy research centre.

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Entries Tagged as 'Housing conditions'

Dealing with apartment defects: a how-to guide for strata owners and buyers

December 14th, 2020 · No Comments · Housing, Housing conditions, Strata, Uncategorized

By Sian Thompson, UNSW; Bill Randolph, UNSW; Hazel Easthope, UNSW; Laura Crommelin, UNSW, and Martin Loosemore, University of Technology Sydney. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. If you own an apartment – or are thinking of buying one – the recent news about building quality […]

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Quality of life in high-density apartments varies. Here are 6 ways to improve it

May 29th, 2020 · No Comments · Cities, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing conditions, Public space, Strata, urban renewal, Wellbeing

By Hazel Easthope, UNSW; Laura Crommelin, UNSW; Laurence Troy, University of Sydney, and Megan Nethercote, RMIT University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. We’re building a lot of apartments in Australia. High-density precincts are being developed across our major cities. But these buildings and neighbourhoods […]

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Lack of information on apartment defects leaves whole market on shaky footings

November 21st, 2019 · No Comments · Construction, Data, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing conditions

By Martin Loosemore (University of Technology Sydney); Bill Randolph, Caitlin Buckle, Hazel Easthope, and Laura Crommelin (City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney). This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.   The litany of defects, poor building standards and regulatory failures has serious implications for apartment owners, occupiers and buyers alike. Fears […]

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The rise and fall of converted housing in urban China

September 9th, 2019 · No Comments · Guest appearance, Housing, Housing conditions, Housing supply, International

By Jin Zhu, PhD candidate, City Futures Research Centre; Bingqin Li, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney; and Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. Originally published at East Asia Forum. Internationally, commercial-to-residential conversion is useful for addressing housing shortages and for making the best use of urban space. Over the past 10–15 years, commercial property converted apartments […]

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Building defects: City Futures’ submissions to the NSW government

August 12th, 2019 · No Comments · Construction, Government, Housing, Housing conditions, Strata, Sydney

By Caitlin Buckle, City Futures Research Centre. The public discussion around building defects has been heating up lately. In response, NSW Fair Trading have proposed a number of reforms to the building process, and the NSW Parliament’s Public Accountability Committee commenced a parliamentary inquiry into the regulation of building standards, building quality and building disputes. […]

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Those left to pick up the bill shut out of building crisis debate

July 24th, 2019 · No Comments · Cities, Construction, Government, Housing, Housing conditions, Law, Sydney, urban renewal

By Prof Bill Randolph, Director, City Futures Research Centre. This article was originally published by the Sydney Morning Herald. The news that the Australian Building Ministers Forum is now acting on the recommendations of the Shergold-Weir report into building defects is a welcome sign that at long last the failings of the development industry to […]

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Build to rent could shake up real estate but won’t take off without major tax changes

July 8th, 2019 · No Comments · Affordability, Construction, Economy, Government, Housing, Housing conditions, Housing supply, International, Law, Private rental, Sydney, urban renewal

By Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. In the wake of slumping demand for apartment building, it’s little wonder the multi-unit housing industry has been eagerly eyeing a possible new residential product: “build-to-rent”. In fact, the latest figures show that […]

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Chilly house? Mouldy rooms? Here’s how to improve low-income renters’ access to decent housing

June 5th, 2019 · No Comments · Affordability, Construction, Housing, Housing conditions, Law, Tenancy, Wellbeing

Too many Australians struggle to get their housing maintained and problems fixed. Trevor Charles Graham/Shutterstock By Edgar Liu, Chris Martin and Hazel Easthope, City Futures Research Centre. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. People’s quality of life, their health and their comfort can suffer when living in […]

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Stay cool with revised house construction codes

February 15th, 2019 · No Comments · Climate change, Construction, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing conditions, Sustainability, Sydney, Wellbeing

By Professor Mat Santamouris, Built Environment, UNSW Sydney. This article was first published by the Sydney Morning Herald. For many Australian households, summer’s debilitating heatwaves will be felt well into autumn as the steep costs of airconditioning show up on household power bills. We shouldn’t have to live like this. Much of the punitive cost […]

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The big lesson from Opal Tower is that badly built apartments aren’t only an issue for residents

January 17th, 2019 · No Comments · Cities, Construction, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing conditions, Strata, Sydney

By Laura Crommelin, Bill Randolph and Hazel Easthope (City Futures Research Centre), and Martin Loosemore (Built Environment, UNSW Sydney). Originally published on The Conversation. The saga of Opal Tower, the 36-storey Sydney apartment building evacuated on Christmas Eve after frightening cracking, has helped to expose the deep cracks in Australia’s approach to building apartments. An interim […]

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