Top property developer predicts future of housing will be small high-rise apartments
IMAGINE a world where your apartment is just 2m wide and your bed folds up to become your desk. And forget about a parking spot because you won’t need a car. This is a vision of Sydney’s future according to the Crown Group chairman.
IMAGINE a world where your apartment is just 2m wide and your bed folds up to become your desk.
There is no such thing as owning a car space because there is no need for a car — you won’t have to travel as much because your high-rise apartment block functions as “a city within the city”.
This vision of Sydney in 10 years is not from some dystopian writer but one of Sydney’s biggest property developers, Crown Group Chairman and CEO Iwan Sunito.
Mr Sunito, a UNSW architecture graduate and self-made millionaire, said affordability pressures and the desire to live close to amenities would drive more people into high-rise instead of suburban sprawl.
While he believes apartments will get much smaller — just 20sq m compared to the current minimum of 35sq m — communal spaces in the blocks, such as libraries, gyms, pools and shops, will get bigger.
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Sunito also demanded the development industry stop building ugly apartments, predicted massive growth around Sydney’s inner-south-west, and complimented Meriton founder Harry Triguboff’s work ethic — although not his buildings.
Asked what his predictions were for the next decade, Mr Sunito said: “I think the size (of apartments) will probably go smaller in the future.
“I think you will see a time when you see a 20 sqm apartment here, where you have beds folded. It is affordability. You see in Hong Kong there are rooms 2m wide, because all you need is a bed. I’ve seen in Singapore where the room, the bedroom, becomes an office. You just fold up your bed and it is a desk.”
NSW planning laws say studios must be at least 35 sqm, one-bedroom apartments 50 sqm, two-bedders 70 sqm and 90 sqm for three beds.
Compact apartments were announced as part of the Premier’s Affordability Package in June 2017. Sources say the government is again considering making apartments smaller, but the result would still require minimum sizes far bigger than 20sq m.
Developer lobby Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson agrees there is a trend towards smaller apartments.
Small apartments are a challenge for architects like Brad Swartz, who go to great lengths to save space, such as measuring plates to make sure they’ll fit in narrow kitchen cupboards.
According to Mr Swartz, who designed a 27sq m apartment in Darley St, Darlinghurst, tiny apartments must be made to measure to claw back every spare centimetre.
“Some people who are really passionate about cooking choose larger kitchens but that will mean smaller living spaces and storage,” he said. “Others aren’t worried about a tiny little kitchen but they want slightly more space in the bedroom, so it’s all about customising the design to suit what’s most important.”
There’s other tricks of the trade to make the tight spaces feel larger, such as leaving space between the tops of cupboards and the roof and lighting up the void.
“The temptation is to cram in as much storage as possible but if the kitchen cupboards stop short of the ceiling, suddenly it doesn’t feel so tiny because you can see the whole dimension of the apartment,” Mr Swartz said.
As well as a future of tiny apartments, Mr Sunito has also offered a prediction on another area of state government reform — Airbnb.
He believes in 10 years Airbnb will be restricted to certain sections of apartment blocks.
“If you don’t do this, you will end up with all these fights happening,” he said.
“Maybe within a 300-apartment complex you could dedicate 100 apartments to Airbnb.”
This week the government announced laws to reduce conflict by allowing owners’ corporations to adopt a by-law, with a 75 per cent majority, preventing short-term letting in their block if the host does not live in the unit they are letting out.
When the host is not present, they can only let out their Sydney Airbnb property for 180 days a year.
Mr Sunito said while short-term letting would remain a controversial issue, he wants to make sure his buildings leave a long-term “legacy”.
He said Sydney has too many dodgy developers giving the industry a bad name.
“I think communities are not against development, they are against bad development — and unfortunately some developments are being built badly,” he said.
“If you look at areas like Mascot, for instance, you stand there and see these massive box buildings everywhere — there is nothing that is exciting. It’s almost like project or public housing. It looks like a 1920s product.
“It is actually private apartments but is designed in this (public housing) way.”
Unlike many property developers, Mr Sunito revels in his public profile.
His Instagram account includes pictures with designer Giorgio Armani, Premier Gladys Berejiklian, former Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, The Bachelor’s Tim Robards and singer Natalie Bassingthwaighte.
Mr Sunito was also pictured with property developer, Meriton founder and Australia’s richest man Harry Triguboff.
While Mr Sunito praised Mr Triguboff’s work ethic and money-making ability, he was not so complimentary about Meriton’s apartment blocks.
“Harry is a legend in terms of building products which are meeting his market,” he said of Mr Triguboff, who is worth about $9.9 billion.
“I don’t always agree with what he builds, but he is a legend.
“He has built an empire and shown what a hardworking person can do.”
Meriton declined to comment on Mr Sunito’s remarks.
Since Crown group was founded in 1996 it has completed developments in Bondi, Parramatta, Ashfield, Epping, Homebush, Newington and Pennant Hills.
The company sold $800m worth of Sydney property last year, and is building projects at Green Square, the CBD, Waterloo and Eastlakes.
Mr Sunito said he hoped his 400-apartment development, Eastlakes Live, would “be the catalyst of redevelopment of the Eastlakes area”.
“It is an underdeveloped area and I identify that to be the new growth area of Sydney,” he said of Sydney’s inner-southwest.
“It has proximity to three golf courses, universities and the light rail.”
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