Is an extra 40cm the secret to happiness in the bedroom? This economics expert doesn’t think so

It’s not often that the book you’re reading illuminates perfectly the strange reality of housing being played out in the nation’s suburbs.

But there I was, working my way through Abundance, the latest must-read in economics by American journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, which has become a clarion call aimed at the world’s progressives, when just that happened.

Under current Victorian regulations, the main bedroom in any new build has to measure at least 3 metres by 3.4 metres, while other bedrooms must be at least 3 metres by 3 metres.Credit: Joe Benke

Abundance effectively argues that all the rules they helped create to protect the environment, prevent pollution, ensure people had quality housing and generally improve our standard of living have turned into a quagmire of red tape that is leaving people worse off.

Everything from the efforts to decarbonise the world to ensuring people have affordable homes is being stymied by the left’s bureaucratic success, or so say Klein and Thompson. And so pervasive is this book that about half of the federal cabinet has a dog-eared copy on their bed stands.

With the key themes of the book still swirling in my head as I began to catch up on the news of the day, I was struck by a story by my colleague, Daniella White, about the bunfight over a multi-storey housing development in the northern Melbourne suburb of Greensborough.

The story opened with the words: “Apartments falling short of minimum space requirements” have been approved by the Victorian state government to help meet its housing targets.

Naturally, I found myself wondering what these minimum space requirements are. About 30 minutes later, after going down the rabbit hole that is state planning regulation, I discovered something quite discomforting.

Under current regulations, the main bedroom in any new build has to measure at least 3 metres by 3.4 metres, while other bedrooms must be at least 3 metres by 3 metres.

That means the house that I’ve had for more than 20 years and raised a family in (including a dog and a rabbit) here in Canberra is not “liveable” by today’s Victorian standards – all because it does not have the requisite-sized bedrooms.

Part of this is due to the quirky nature of Canberra’s older housing stock, which feature what are known locally as “ex-govies”. These homes were simply designed, quick-to-build and (importantly) cheap. They were thrown up across the suburbs of Canberra throughout the 1960s and early 1970s when the city’s population was growing at 10 per cent per annum and when the federal government wanted people moving to the city to have a roof over their heads at a modest price.

While ex-govies (named because they were originally built by the government and then sold privately) didn’t win architectural awards, and their paper-thin brick veneer is terrible in a Canberra winter, they succeeded in providing affordable shelter quickly for a fast-growing population.

There are literally tens of thousands of these homes – and their small bedrooms – across Canberra, including mine. Yet, in today’s world, they wouldn’t be considered “liveable” for the potential residents of Greensborough.

How Victorian planning regulators came to determine 3 metres by 3.4 metres for a main bedroom was the minimum standard appears to be lost in the mists of regulatory time, but the rest of the country have smaller minimum sizes (about three-quarters of the Victorian standard).

The proposed 200 one- and two-bedroom apartments at the Greensborough development are to be rented out at below market rates, which is affordable housing, pure and simple. But those upset about the proposal fear that the properties will be of “questionable quality”, even though the only measure of quality are these minimum standards for bedrooms and living rooms. Those are the same standards that are condemned in my comfortable and functional family home in Canberra.

What’s also remarkable is that the 400 or so people who would be housed in this development don’t have a say. They may be trapped in expensive rental accommodation now. They may be in an unsafe family environment. They may be stuck in a Canberra ex-govie, dealing with temperatures which last week reached around -10C. What wouldn’t they give for a new-built place in glorious Greensborough?

This is where Abundance and its key themes hit home. The more regulations you put in place to get perfection, the higher the cost (and the longer the build time).

There’s no cost to the locals for delaying or pushing up the price of the 200 units. Instead, that falls on the unknown families and individuals who hope to move into a new home.

That’s a cost too often out of sight and largely out of mind. And if it means this project never goes ahead, that seems to be a bonus to at least some critics.

This isn’t just a whack at the NIMBY locals of Greensborough. In Sydney, a few thousand members of the Australian Turf Club recently killed a plan to turn Rosehill Racecourse into a city for 25,000 people.

In this case, the pampered thoroughbreds in their stables have far more space to stretch out than the 25,000 unknown people seeking a long-term dream home with access to public transport and near quality jobs.

These types of issues are playing out across the country. And they are hurting tens if not hundreds of thousands of people prevented from owning a home, even with a small bedroom.

As a young fella, I would often go to Greensborough to watch the local Aussie rules competition. Back then, the only infrastructure was a nearby fish and chip shop, supplying the necessary sustenance while I watched the ’Boro kick a few goals.

The fish and chip shop is long gone – a casualty of the suburb developing and changing over time. But now, it appears, it can’t change any more as the quality of life is defined by a bedroom that measures 3 metres by 3.4 metres.

Shane Wright is a senior economics correspondent.

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