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 […]
Entries Tagged as 'Sydney'
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
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There are lessons to be drawn from the cracks that appeared in Sydney’s Opal Tower, but they extend beyond building certification
January 11th, 2019 · No Comments · Construction, Government, Guest appearance, Housing conditions, Sydney
By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Lecturer in Architecture, Univeristy of NSW, Sydney. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The reasons for the cracked concrete that triggered the evacuation – twice – of residents from Sydney’s Opal Tower over Christmas and the New Year are unknown and will […]
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Who wins and who loses when platforms like Airbnb disrupt housing? And how do you regulate it?
November 8th, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Airbnb, Cities, Government, Housing, Housing supply, International, Law, Marginal rental, Private rental, Sharing, Sydney
By Laura Crommelin, Chris Martin and Laurence Troy (City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney) and Sharon Parkinson (Swinburne University of Technology). This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Short-term letting platforms like Airbnb are changing property owners’ and investors’ views and behaviour in the Sydney and Melbourne rental […]
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A dashboard for the GreenWay
September 3rd, 2018 · No Comments · Bikes, Data, Public space, Sydney, Transport, Wellbeing
By Alessandra Buxton, Ori Gudes, Chris Pettit and Vandana Mann, City Futures Research Centre. Cycling around Sydney CBD and the surrounding suburbs has been dubbed a dangerous and difficult experience by Sydneysiders. Both Sydney and NSW are at the bottom of their classes in terms of cycling participation rates, with participation declining since 2015 in both greater […]
Tags:Planning
Can the market provide affordable housing?
July 9th, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Government, Housing, Housing supply, Marginal rental, Private rental, Sydney
A new-generation boarding house in Randwick built under AHSEPP, with units that were advertised for $500 a week. By Laurence Troy, Ryan van den Nouwelant and Bill Randolph, City Futures Research Centre. Originally published by The Fifth Estate. There is an ongoing debate about the best role for the planning system in addressing the shortage […]
Higher density and diversity: apartments are Australia at its most multicultural
June 19th, 2018 · No Comments · Demographics, Guest appearance, Housing, Migration, Strata, Sydney
Image: Marcus Jaaske/Shutterstock By Christina Ho, University of Technology Sydney; Edgar Liu, UNSW, and Hazel Easthope, UNSW. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Increasing numbers of city dwellers live in apartments. This is particularly the case for migrants. And that makes apartment buildings important hubs of multiculturalism in our cities. However, […]
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Airbnb regulation needs to distinguish between sharing and plain old commercial letting
June 6th, 2018 · No Comments · Airbnb, Cities, Data, Housing, Housing supply, Law, Sharing, Sydney
Image: paul/Flickr, CC BY By Laura Crommelin, Chris Martin and Laurence Troy, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Airbnb and other short-term letting websites have been a hot topic of debate for some time. In New South Wales, it seems the state government is on […]
Tags:Planning
Homelessness: Australia’s shameful story of policy complacency and failure continues
May 15th, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Cities, Data, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Sydney
By Hal Pawson, UNSW and Cameron Parsell, The University of Queensland. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Exactly a decade ago in 2008, the Australian government committed to an ambitious strategy to halve national homelessness by 2020. Through stepped-up early intervention, better homelessness services and an expanded supply of affordable housing, […]
Tags:Social housing
NSW is overselling its social housing commitment
May 8th, 2018 · No Comments · Construction, Government, Housing, Housing supply, Sydney
Photo: Zachary staines By Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. Originally published on The Fifth Estate. According to figures published this week the NSW government has over the past few years managed to build more public housing units than it has sold to raise revenue. As revealed by the figures, the NSW Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) […]
Tags:Social housing
Grappling with housing disruption: how should planners respond to Airbnb?
May 1st, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Cities, Data, Economy, Government, Housing, Sydney
By Laura Crommelin. This article originally appeared in New Planner – the journal of the New South Wales planning profession – published by the Planning Institute of Australia. The explosive growth of digital short-term letting platform Airbnb poses plenty of challenges for planners, with the impact being felt across both urban and regional areas. But what exactly is the […]
Tags:Planning