As a case study, this paper discusses the Sydney housing market, the location of much of Australia’s most expensive housing. It argues that appropriately designed housing targets would involve a large increase in apartment construction in the affluent inner and eastern suburbs, where the housing...

The 'Better Apartments Design Standards' (BADS) were introduced into the Victoria Planning Provisions (VPPs) in 2017 in response to increasing numbers of Victorians choosing to live in apartments. This inquiry report indicates that the standards may have contributed to improved design across Victoria.

This research explored how high-rise residents experience Southbank, their sense of place and how they live there. Two key questions are: What are Southbank residents’ sense of place within the high-rise building in which they live? and What are Southbank residents’ sense of place within...

This report addresses the serious and growing problem of building defects in the trillion dollar multi-unit housing sector. The findings are intended to inform changes to planning and development policy and regulation, leading to improved building quality and safety, lower costs and stress for owners...

The purpose of the report is to produce clear data on the problem of serious building defects in Class 2 residential apartment buildings in NSW. The report finds that 39% of strata buildings have experienced serious defects in the common property.

The findings of this study support the idea that well-designed housing that works for people with mobility impairments does not compromise the design of housing for the general population – rather it enhances the built environment.

This publication has been prepared to increase the accessibility of valuable evidence and experiences to policy-makers within Australia. It is intended to encourage more partnership approaches toward developing public policy that are informed by broad groups of experts, including Churchill Fellows.

Planning regulations restrict the supply of apartments and hence drive up their price. This effect can be measured by the difference between the price of new apartments and the cost of supplying them. This paper measures the excess demand for apartments in Australia's largest cities.

This research investigates the experiences of lower-income apartment residents in relation to planning and infrastructure provision; urban design; building design and management; neighbourhood amenities and facilities; and ongoing place management and community engagement so as to improve wellbeing, community and housing affordability outcomes.

Exploring the social, political and economic factors that favoured urban sprawl over high density during early twentieth century, this paper examines the discourses surrounding the ideal Australian home at such a key time in Sydney’s early development.

High-rise housing has many benefits and quite a few shortcomings. The challenge is to shift the balance towards likeability.

Despite potential advantages of load aggregation and scale discounts, few of Australia's 2.3 million apartment residents are amongst the country's 1.8 million solar prosumers. However, embedded networks can be used to distribute rooftop photovoltaic generation to households if split incentives and regulatory barriers are overcome.

There are currently many families with young children living in inner city Melbourne, in high density apartment buildings designed for singles or couples without children, which has significant implications for children’s health and development. This literature review formed part of a wider research project with...

Traditionally, parents have moved to low density, middle and outer suburbs of Australian cities to raise their children. However census data shows that between 2001 and 2011, the number of families raising children in inner-city, higher density, suburbs has increased. Many of these suburbs are...

Over 1.7 Australian households have taken the opportunity to generate some of their own power and reduce both their electricity bills and carbon emissions by installing rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems on their homes. However, regulatory, technical, financial and organisational challenges have largely prevented Australia's growing...

14% of Australians live in apartments, predominantly in urban centres, yet few of these have PV systems, despite high levels of PV deployment on separate and semi-detached residential buildings. Increased PV deployment on apartment buildings represents a valuable market opportunity for the PV industry, which...

This article argues that redesigning the housing market and supporting deliberative development are the keys to achieving good, affordable apartments.

Urban consolidation policies in Australia presuppose apartments as the new dominant housing type, but much of what the market has delivered is criticised as over-development, and as being generic, poorly-designed, environmentally unsustainable and unaffordable.

This paper presents some findings from a survey undertaken in medium-density apartment housing in Fairfield, Sydney between September-December 2012 as part of a Ph.D. thesis.

This report documents the scale of the Melbourne’s recent inner-city high rise apartment boom and the scale of its likely further expansion.