Super size me: apartment buyers want more

Super-sized apartments with three or more bedrooms are making a comeback.

Jesse and Seada Linardi with their children, new-born Skylah and two-year-old Savanah, in their six-storey Collingwood townhouse in Melbourne. Picture: Aaron Francis

Super-sized apartments with three or more bedrooms are making a comeback, accelerating the shift away from traditional ­detached homes with a backyard.

The trend is being driven by ­increasing capital city land prices and means units are no longer the preserve of singles, young couples and empty-nesters in or near the CBD. Three- and four-bedroom apartments formerly reserved for penthouse or sub-penthouse ­levels are being offered as a ­realistic option for family living.

“Communities are reimagining what the great Australian dream is — for many, it’s still the quarter-acre block and freestanding house, but for many it’s not,” said Property Council of Australia chief executive Ken Morrison.

“People are after apartment living close to transport and jobs with an environment that provides them with the amenity they are looking for.

“We are seeing apartment projects catering not just for young singles getting started but people right across their family formation period, meaning families are desiring to live in larger apartments.”

In the past two years, the market for “cookie cutter” apartments skewed towards investors has cooled in favour of designer offerings aimed at buyers wanting top-line finishes and extra amenity.

The nation’s most expensive residential sale in 2019 was by Lendlease in the yet-to-be-built Tower 1 of Sydney’s Barangaroo development for $140m. The mega-apartment will have nine bedrooms, 8m-high ceilings, a rooftop swimming pool, spa and gymnasium across 1600sq m.

The trickledown effect means 70 per cent of the population of Sydney’s second CBD, Parra­matta, is expected to be living in apartments by 2030. This is speeding the demise of the suburban backyard, the focus of a special ­series in The Australian this week.

Apartment buyers are demanding amenities beyond the standard gym and entertainment area by the pool.

Brisbane property group Aria builds apartment blocks equipped with libraries, fitness centres, communal dining areas and cinema rooms. Some offer a children’s playground on the roof, access to Tesla electric loan cars and coffee and wine lounges. 

Aria development boss Mich­ael Hurley said this represented a fundamental shift in thinking about apartment living. “People want options. The long-term trend towards inner-city, multiple-dwelling, residential units is only going to increase as land becomes more expensive and scarce. The missing opportunity out there is to do high-rise residential living with amenities, facilities and features that had previously never been seen before,” he said.

Developers aren’t alone in trying to do more with less space. Melbourne architects Jesse and Seada Linardi took the townhouse to the next level in inner-city Collingwood: a six-storey tower with a footprint barely 4x6m they share with a toddler and baby. “We use the community spaces around us … to make up for the lack of a backyard,” Mr Linardi said. The focus was on functionality, with segmented living maximising the usable space for the family of four.