Bigger apartments begin to emerge given impact of pandemic: CommSec's Craig James
The pandemic-driven desire for extra living space may have been reflected in bigger apartments being built.
Covid-19 may have influenced home size, although it is still relatively early days in the construction cycle, according to Craig James chief economist at CommSec in the CommSec Annual Home Size Report.
"The experience with Covid-19 has certainly caused more families to look for bigger homes and caused others to add extra rooms to existing homes.
"More Aussies want to achieve a situation where family members are able to live, work and relax at home.
Read more: Four new Melbourne city apartments super-upsizing the competition
"No doubt, builders and architects have been quick to respond to the new demands by families," James said.
The average new apartment completed in 2020/21 was at an 11-year high of 138sqm, up 0.4 per cent over the year.
By comparison, the average free-standing house completed in 2020/21 was 229sqm, down 2.9 per cent from 7-year highs.
CommSec commissioned the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to supply data on the average floor area of new homes built in Australia.
While quarterly data is more volatile, national home size hit a 7-year high of 201sqm in the June quarter 2020 and stood at 200sqm in the December quarter.
Read more: Four new Melbourne city apartments super-upsizing the competition
Apartment size and house size also spiked higher in the June quarter, especially apartments.
Apartment size spiked to 146sqm in June quarter 2020 – a record high in the 10 years of available quarterly records and a result on par with the high set 17 years ago for financial year records.
The average size of an apartment hit record lows in 2017/18.
The biggest apartments can be found in Victoria 156sqm followed by South Australia 149sqm and Northern Territory at 141sqm.
The smallest can be found in Tasmania at 91sqm.
The size of NSW apartments built in the last financial year sat at 126sqm, up 3.3 percent.
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