Architect delivers a big home truth on Aussie housing

An Australian architect has warned there is not enough housing to cater for the nation's growing population, and the solution is smaller blocks and more medium-density living.

Speaking at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia conference in Sydney on Wednesday, architect Harry Seidler said it was a "fundamental planning error" to assume more and more Australians want detached homes on quarter-acre blocks.

High demand for housing

Between 2006 and 2011, 90 per cent of the nation's new homes were detached. Yet a Productivity Commission report last month found 40 per cent of households were now single people, who do not need four bedrooms and a sprawling garden.

As inner-city land becomes more scarce, Mr Seidler said developers will need to build more apartments, townhouses and other forms of higher density living.

But he said many councils currently demanded car parking spaces for every unit, making medium-density developments economically unviable.

The role of Government

"Councils need to remove the car parking condition. It's a legacy of the car culture of the 1950s and 1960s," he said.

"If they don't, we will never build enough houses of the right type and in the right location. It's a fact."

Mr Seidler said the federal government also needed to take action, by providing financial incentives to councils to remove car parking requirements.

He said the government also needed to spend more money on public transport, to make living in higher density areas more attractive.

"Governments have a responsibility to create livable, sustainable cities. They need to do it now, before it's too late," he said.

The future of housing

Mr Seidler said the future of housing in Australia was "not grim", but it would require a major shift in thinking.

"We need to move away from the idea of the quarter-acre block as the only acceptable form of housing," he said.

"We need to embrace smaller blocks, more medium-density living, and better public transport."

"If we can do that, we can create a more sustainable, more affordable and more livable future for all Australians."