Push for priority in strata housing

PEAK property body Strata Community Association (Qld) has called for governments to heed of 2021 Census data and put strata housing at the forefront of policymaking.

SCA (Qld) senior vice president Chris Irons says the growth of high-density living and strata style housing continues to accelerate.

“A quick examination of the housing data from the 2021 Census indicates a tremendous trend towards higher density apartment living. At the 2016 Census, there were estimated to be just over 1.2 million occupied apartments across the country. That figure has exploded to approximately 1.7 million. That’s about 100,000 apartments being constructed on average every year,” Mr Irons said.

“Apartments counted for nearly one-third of total new private dwellings in the five years since 2016. In addition to this, almost three out of 10 dwellings across the country are now strata in the form of either apartments or townhouses.”

He said for the first time over 10 per cent of Australians lived in an apartment.

“Governments at the local, state and federal level need to look at this as one of the biggest demographic and social shifts in the last 50 years,” he said.

Mr Irons said he hoped the trend towards strata living was appropriately supported by government and that reforms to strata law and service delivery reflected this trend.

“Strata housing can be a huge part of the solution to many of the big picture problems our society faces, and we are glad to see it being embraced by a growing portion of Australians,” Mr Irons said.

“There needs to be recognition of this shift to shared housing. The days of the quarter-acre block being the norm are rapidly receding. Reforms are needed to help ensure we manage this shift correctly.”