Aparments

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GUEST OBSERVATION
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, our recent research shows that researchers and policymakers have largely overlooked the implications of this combination of increasing cultural diversity and increasing housing density.
We live in an environment of increasing cultural diversity. But we also see increasing racism in Australian society, as well as a rise in racialised tension about Chinese property buyers.
These developments suggest we need to pay more attention to how to make apartment buildings work for residents from many different cultural backgrounds.
This is essential to support social cohesion, or the positive social relationships that bond members of society. When social cohesion is weakened, we see a lack of trust and reductions in people’s sense of belonging and their willingness to participate and help others. This, in turn, can damage people’s health and well-being, as well as fuelling broader political instability.
Increasing density
In 2015, we passed an important, but largely unrecognised, milestone in Australia. It was the first year in the country’s history that dwelling starts for attached properties overtook those for detached houses.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221319/original/file-20180601-88530-rftpx6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Author provided
This should perhaps come as no surprise. State governments have for many years been pushing for more apartments to be built.
Australia is not alone in this regard. Countries around the world have been promoting “compact city” policies that focus on building up rather than building out.
Around Australia, almost one in ten people now live in apartments. However, the proportions are much higher in our major cities.
Across the Greater Sydney metropolitan area, for example, 30% of residents live in apartments. In some inner-city suburbs, apartments are home to the vast majority of residents, including in Pyrmont, Zetland and Ultimo (see Table 1 below). Beachside locations such as Surfers Paradise, Queensland, and Glenelg, South Australia, also have high proportions of apartment residents.
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Increasing diversity
Apartment residents are very diverse culturally. Across Australia, more than half of apartment residents – 56%, compared to 33% of all Australian residents – are migrants. Of these, the biggest group (26% of apartment residents) are migrants born in Asia.
Nationwide, only 7% of Australian-born people live in apartments. For those born in northeast Asia (including China), the figure is 31%. And for those born in southern and central Asia (including India), it’s 26%.
Looking again at Greater Sydney, housing density and cultural diversity are clearly correlated. The Sydney suburbs where more than 90% of residents live in apartments also have high concentrations of overseas-born migrants.
Challenges of apartment living
While apartment living is unfamiliar to many Australian-born residents, Australian apartment lifestyles and norms can be even further from what migrants are used to. Our research, based on interviews with Sydney-based strata managers, shows that social and cultural differences can contribute to tensions within apartment buildings. These might be about shoes left in common areas, or washing hung on balconies, or “offensive” cooking smells wafting beyond kitchen walls.
Tensions between residents with different lifestyles are not limited to residents from different ethnic or cultural backgrounds. Tensions also arise between residents of different ages, different household types and with different working schedules. Cultural difference is but one of many factors that can contribute to tensions in apartment buildings.
However, strata managers also commented that sometimes new arrivals’ lack of English and lack of familiarity with Australian regulations had prevented them from fully participating in their building by, for example, joining strata committees or attending or speaking at meetings. Sometimes new arrivals were not even aware of basics such as the need to pay strata levies. Quite possibly that’s a result of strata rules and regulations not having been adequately explained to them.
Australian strata regulations and bylaws reflect a particular understanding of what it means to own or live in an apartment. Obligations and opportunities here – for example, the right to vote on motions at meetings – may look very different in other countries.
Apartment residents, strata committees and strata managers are finding that they need to adapt to the reality of their culturally diverse communities. After all, multiculturalism is about acknowledging and respecting difference.
Fostering cohesion
As we have previously discussed, more inclusive practices – such as translating documents and meeting discussions, conducting audits and surveys of building residents, and providing a range of opportunities for participation – will benefit all residents and owners, regardless of their background.
While multicultural apartment blocks may pose challenges, they also offer opportunities for residents to enjoy the richness of a diverse and cosmopolitan environment. This is one of the enormous attractions of urban life. For many apartment residents, it’s available on an everyday level.
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97176/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">With growing numbers of urban residents living in apartment buildings that are also culturally diverse, more efforts to foster co-operation and understanding are vital for realising the potential of these urban spaces to become productive hubs of everyday multiculturalism in Australia.
Christina Ho, Senior Lecturer &amp; Discipline Coordinator, Social &amp; Political Sciences, University of Technology Sydney
Edgar Liu, Research Fellow at City Futures Research Centre, UNSW 
Hazel Easthope, Senior Research Fellow, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-density-and-diversity-apartments-are-australia-at-its-most-multicultural-97176" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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j.ballantyne1990-6AQqhLzZaK

 Higher density and diversity: apartments are Australia at its most multicultural

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Slower investor demand as a result of APRA’s macro-prudential policy measures is having an impact on all major capital city apartment markets, but so too are other state and federal imposts on foreign buyers, according to JLL’s Apartment Market report for 4Q 2017. 
But despite the slower demand, markets are still weathering the recent strong new supply additions "relatively well".
According to JLL, tight development finance conditions and slower pre-sale rates are seeing a self-regulation of supply pipelines and far less projects move into construction.
The amount of stock under construction across the five major capital city markets (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide) at the end of 3Q17 fell to 39,760 apartments, which has shrunk by around 10,000 apartments over the last two quarters.
JLL said the peak in supply was in 2017.
They expect around 25 percent less stock to be delivered in 2018 ensuring that the major markets do not move far into over-supply and that it is a relatively soft landing for the apartment market.
JLL’s Head of Residential Research, Leigh Warner said APRA’s intention in clamping down on investor lending was always to slow the housing market down, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne.
"This has been successful, but the risk we are now facing is that the added imposts imposed by state governments and the Federal Government on foreign investors in residential property is slowing this important portion of demand by much more than intended.
“It appears that foreign investors that have already invested are still settling sales at present, albeit often over a longer than normal period. However, it is also clear new offshore demand has fallen sharply and this is particularly impacting some larger CBD projects and projects by foreign developers.”
Warner believes the markets are still showing "remarkable resilience" noting Melbourne continues to operate at low levels of rental vacancy and is seeing rental growth, while apartment prices were still growing in late 2017.
“Sydney too is holding up relatively well in the face of significantly slower Chinese demand than it has enjoyed over recent years.
"Apartment prices have flattened off and are falling in some locations where supply is particularly concentrated, but the rental market is still tight and the market still appears relatively balanced after years of under-supply.”
 
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 Warner noted while the large Sydney and Melbourne markets are slowing and driving overall national trends, other markets remain at very different points in the cycle. 
Adelaide and Canberra are less mature apartment markets, but both have seen much stronger apartment development and are slightly less progressed in the cycle than Sydney or Melbourne.
Perth and Brisbane are more advanced in the cycle and, after a very challenging 2017, both markets appear to be edging towards the trough in the cycle.
For Brisbane, JLL said the issue has been very much about supply levels, with a considerable amount built over the past two years.
However, Brisbane’s supply peak was in 2016 and a particularly tough development-financing environment will mean the pipeline will drop sharply from 2018 onwards.
Brisbane’s population growth is also picking up after several weak years following the end of the mining boom, which should also help soak up surplus supply.
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Curtailed supply ensures soft landing for resilient apartment market: JLL

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Some 43 apartments were sold in the first three hours of release at Sydney's Luxe on Eve development in the inner city suburb of Erskineville over the weekend.
<img src="/images/2016/10/31/Screen%20Shot%202016-10-31%20at%2012.16.48%20PM.png" alt="">
When completed, Luxe on Eve will feature 71 apartments across two buildings reaching six levels in height.
<img src="/images/2016/10/31/Screen%20Shot%202016-10-31%20at%2012.16.58%20PM.png" alt="">
A two bed apartment plus study and car space was sold to a local owner occupier for $1.35 (87 sqm internal, 75 sqm balcony). Total weekend sales were over $40 million.
<img src="/images/2016/10/31/Screen%20Shot%202016-10-31%20at%2012.16.54%20PM.png" alt="">
Prices ranging from $595,000 to $1.35 million.
The $80 million residential development is designed by Smith &amp; Tzannes Architects.
For more information, <a href="https://www.luxeoneve.com" target="_blank">click here</a>.
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