Melbourne’s “investor stock” apartments to upgrade.
Not before time, the Victorian Government is insisting on Melbourne’s “investor stock” apartments to upgrade. The draft design standards have been released alongside research showing 60 per cent of apartments recently constructed in Melbourne were of low quality. Interestingly this figure of 60% comes from the developers themselves who are admitting they are “not proud” of many of their recent developments.
Melbourne to improve its very poor unit design
Following on from yesterday’s blog on the large uptake of inner city units from downsizers, Melbourne CBD has been at the very other spectrum of this market. Many developers have been concentrating on increasing their profits by constructing small “shoe-box’ apartments that would not be permitted to be constructed in either of our other east coast capital cities.
It’s almost unbelievable that the new rules will insist that there must be light in the way of a window to each bedroom! Also surprisingly, every unit will require having at least one small storage cupboard; minimum 2.7m ceilings; some green space outside and bedrooms will not be permitted beside mechanical plant in order that residents may be able to sleep! This sounds all a bit third world but this is typical of some recent unit development in Melbourne. If you are not familiar with this market, have a look here: http://goo.gl/wXJWTD
The Sydney buyer has been known to complain about the small size of new units in Sydney, but at least there are minimum sizes, something the Victorian Government will still not legislate. In Sydney, one-bedrooms units must be at least 50 square metres, two-bedroom apartments at least 70 square metres and three-bedrooms at least 90 square metres.
In looking for a good apartment investment, we are always looking for units that will appeal to future owner-occupiers and not just term by term students! This means units must be spacious, have parking and storage space. We also insist on outdoor areas including an entertainment balcony. These may well be included in the new Victorian guidelines but the space constraints are likely to remain. However, there is likely to be a big improvement after Melbourne’s “investor stock” apartments upgrade. Read about the proposed changes here: http://goo.gl/iyXeDO
