The funds were “also interested in the impact”,Daff says. “The average salary of an Australian Super member is $60,000 to $70,000,so they’re interested in models that generate a return but also enable members into an asset outside super – home ownership.” There is no social housing component in the first Assemble building,but seven apartments are being rented at 20 per cent below the usual rate for essential workers.
In five years,all going well,Sabrina and Nagesh expect to be among the buyers. “We get longevity,security and functionality,” Sabrina says. “And at the end we get to choose if we buy.
“We have a lot of power in this situation.”
Nightingale:sustainability and community
Nightingale,on the other hand,is a not-for profit entity. Talk to designers,architects and urban planners in Melbourne about apartment quality and they’ll send you to have a look. Some are evangelical about it.
Since starting with a building called the Commons in the formerly industrial dead space between Sydney Road and the Anstey train station in Brunswick,10 Nightingale blocks have been built in Brunswick alone (six on one site to the south of the original Nightingale building called “The Village”) as well as one each in Brunswick East,Fairfield,Ballarat,Fremantle in Western Australia and Bowden in South Australia. Seven more are under construction and 10 are on the drawing board,though one has recently run into strife with the council in Brunswick.
They are built to be environmentally sustainable communities. Residents put down a 10 per cent deposit and buy an apartment at cost price. A studio-style apartment sells for $275,000 to $300,000,a one-bedroom apartment is $450,000 to $550,000;two bedrooms is $600,000 to the high $700,000s,and three-bedroom apartments sell for up to $995,000.
Prospective owners apply in a ballot and have their name drawn out of a hat. The successful ones start getting invitations straight away to meet and get to know their future neighbours,even as the building is under construction. The apartments have recycled timber floors and,like Assemble’s,concrete ceilings. They are architect-designed to be functional and well insulated,with larger-than-usual internal spaces and big balconies oriented to the sun,with deep pots for plants.
But there is no car park and no washing machine. This saves costs and promotes two key attractions of Nightingale:sustainability and community.
Instead of a car park,Nightingale has negotiated a deal with car and ebike sharing schemes. Asked about the need to drag shopping home from the shops on foot,chief executive Dan McKenna,who is also a resident,says:“We’re close to supermarkets.”
As for the laundry,common washing machines and washing lines are on the roof. It’s become one of the model’s most talked-about features. Asked if people were squeamish about hanging their smalls out in front of their neighbours,McKenna says:“Nobody cares – and it saves a couple of thousand dollars in taps,washing machine and saves space.”
The only bath for children is also on the roof,and is first come,first served. Up there is also a vegetable garden,a shared induction cooktop and common room,rainwater tanks,a heat pump for the building and a solar array.
It is designed as a gathering space,to build a community.
A key element of the model is scale:the blocks are divided so there are no more than 40 apartments in each. They want people to buy in and then stay:“We’re pushing against the idea in the Australian apartment context that people come and go in six to 12 months”,McKenna says.
But when residents move in they cede a certain amount of autonomy. They sign a deed promising that,for 20 years,they will not sell their apartment for more than the average house price increase in the suburb in which the building is located.
“When you’re selling houses at cost price,you don’t want people to rake profits,” McKenna explains. Asked if anyone had breached the deed,he said they had not yet had to take enforcement action and that “everyone buys into the framework”.
Those whose circumstances change can rent out their property “as long as it adheres to the spirit of the model and avoids price gouging”,McKenna says. No Airbnb is allowed. The money to build them comes from “impact investors” such as Sefa,superannuation funds and banks.
McKenna runs it and gladly lives in it. “I talk about it with my partner as such a great way for our daughter to grow up. We know everyone in our building,and I think it’s a fantastic way of saying,‘this is the kind of people we encounter in life’.”
Future Homes:‘Gentle’ density
If you have a spare couple of suburban blocks of land in Maribyrnong within 400 metres of an activity centre or train station and on a street nominated as a priority by the council,then your state government needs you. For $15,000,you can buy a plan for one of four architect-designed,low-rise apartment blocks.
Future Homes is an attempt by the Office of the Victorian Government Architect,in concert with the state’s planning department,to inspire developers,groups of homeowners or downsizers to increase the density of their neighbourhood with “gentle” development.
The plans are for buildings of no more than three storeys,which means they can fit between 12 and 17 apartments into existing suburban height limits under the planning code. If developers are building a Future Homes design,they get a fast-tracked planning process that avoids challenges at VCAT.
And they are carefully designed by architects to be great places to live. The government architect ran a competition and selected four designs that fit strict criteria including liveability,affordability,quality,sustainability and adaptability – that is,they can be replicated on different sites and scaled all over the city. They are light,bright and naturally ventilated.
One of the winning architects,Andres Lopez,the founder of Agency for Design Strategy,said most of the designs he’d created with agency IncluDesign were positioned in the corner of the building,giving ventilation,natural light on three sides and common areas where neighbours can encounter each other as they enter and leave the building.
He was after “a sense of belonging” and connection with neighbours and the surroundings. It challenges the Australian idea of privacy in favour of building community.
“I’m from Colombia,so the idea of community-oriented living is much more common there,older,” he says. Lopez was struck when he came to Australia that the focus of social activity was in the backyard and occurred by invitation,without the serendipity that comes with semi-public entertaining.
In his Future Homes plan,“you are exposed to people seeing you,but in a clever way. It’s privacy that’s acceptable,but bearing in mind you live in a community ... It’s the idea of sharing.”
With luck,he says,this means that if your elderly neighbour falls down in the street or your child gets lost,people are more likely to know how to help.
Victorian Government Architect Jill Garner,one of the brains behind Future Homes,said she wasinspired by the Small Homes Service – a mid-century collaboration betweenThe Age and architect Robin Boyd – which produced home designs that suggested new ways of living in postwar Australia. It used open plans,window walls,sunlight,cross-ventilation and emphasised the indoor-outdoor relationship.
Her second inspiration came from the inner-south suburb of Elwood,which was shaped by European migrants with experience of dense cities,apartment homes and streetscapes as public places. Without feeling crowded,it’s the 12th-densest suburb in Melbourne,with plenty of trees among the early 20th-century apartment architecture,which often includes large family-sized dwellings. It also feels like a community.
“We need people to look at density and not be frightened,” Garner says of Future Homes.
Each of the Future Homes designs,like the Small Homes Service houses,gives access to light,air,ventilation and landscape. She believes this can also be done affordably:if enough of these designs are built,components could be manufactured in bulk,bringing down costs. And if developers are building one of the designs,they can get a fast-tracked planning process,avoiding the time and cost challenges that often hit apartment buildings of this type.
Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny said it would “demonstrate to Victorians how apartments and townhouses can be built in a way that is sensitive to the existing community while also providing a sustainable and liveable environment to residents.”
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So far,its reception has been mixed. Builders and commercial developers,accustomed to the higher returns of denser developments,are not tooled up to construct low-rise apartments. And the planning department has had trouble getting councils on board for a two-year trial.
Darebin and Monash as well as Maribyrnong were supposed to be part of it. But Darebin said in a statement that they were “unable to meet the State government’s compressed timeframes” to review and consider the Future Homes model.
Monash mayor Tina Samardzija said the council had decided not to take part because it wanted more details about the location of homes and the impact on existing homeowners.
“We were also seeking greater involvement from other councils so outcomes could be seen across a range of different areas,” she said.
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It’s a common complaint of proponents of denser living that councils cannot hear the voices of future residents over the objections of current residents.
However,Maribyrnong CEO Celia Haddock said with the municipality’s population expected to double by 2051,and with 1000 new homes required per year to accommodate that growth,her municipality wanted to be building multiple low-rise apartments in established areas.
“Our community has told us of their vision for high-quality developments that prioritise quality and environmentally sustainable design and materials that will enhance social cohesion,access to public and active transport,green spaces,and light,” she said in a statement.
As for how it’s going:“Council has received two general enquiries,but no applications as yet from developers.”