Recently there has been a lot of coverage in the press about the enormous number of apartments currently being built in the city. Perhaps the most troubling news is that there may be an over supply but I think worse than the over supply aspect is that many are of very poor quality. This has been happening in the city for quite some time. The apartments have got smaller.
When I first came into real estate about 17 years ago 50 sq metres was considered small and the banks didn’t want t lend on anything smaller. Now they are building them much smaller than that.
Smaller doesn’t necessarily mean inferior as well-designed small can be great. There are many examples from Denmark and Sweden which illustrate this. Finally the local authorities have stepped in and changed the rules to try and encourage better design. This is a welcome development. Be mindful though it means that recently built and those currently under construction won’t necessarily be up to the new minimum standards. This will undoubtedly effect their value compared to the future apartments which will have to meet the new requirements.
These are some of the areas with new requirements:
- Building setbacks
- Functional layout
- Room depth
- Windows
- Storage
- Noise impacts
- Energy efficiency
- Solar access to communal open space
- Natural ventilation
- Private open space
- Communal open space
- Landscaping
- Accessibility
- Building entry and circulation
- Waste and recycling
- Integrated water and stormwater management
Interested in finding out more? Here are the links:
Leave a Reply