Inner city high-rise apartments built over the past six years are expected to fail to meet minimum design requirements set to be introduced this month.
A recent study has revealed a massive gap between what was previously allowed and what will soon be mandated as part of the state government’s Better Apartment Design Standards.
In fact, of the 3000 apartments researched in areas such as the CBD, Southbank and Brunswick, just nine apartments passed the new guidelines on design elements such as size, ventilation and light.
More than 99% (2,991 apartments) failed to meet all the minimum requirements of the seven standards the study assessed.
Size was the hardest category for apartments to pass with the majority of units failing to provide enough open space requirements and bedroom and living room size.
Most had balconies too small or none at all, whilst bedrooms and living rooms failed to meet all mandated minimum dimensions.
Adequate sunlight and natural light was also a major concern, with many units failing to provide windows to bedrooms or ‘snorkel’ windows that were deeper than allowed. More than two thirds were not well ventilated either.
Moving forward
Although design standards have certainly improved over the years with developers of high-rise apartments incorporating higher design practices and build quality, the results are still quite alarming and shed a light into some of the poorer practices adopted over the past few years.
The results also confirm our long-held view towards the inner city high rise apartment market and why we generally advise our clients to invest elsewhere; namely in areas with higher demand, lower supply and in boutique apartment & townhouse blocks that will hold their values over the years and yield higher capital growth when it comes time to sell.