Is the way we are living changing? Trends show changes in dwelling density and house size

Australia is said to have some of the biggest houses in the world. But it’s not all about house size when it comes to dwelling trends in Australia. Using the latest 2016 Census data, we can see how the way we live in Australia is changing.

Dwelling trends in Australia

ABS Building Activity data indicates that the average floor area of new houses in Australia has increased over time. While the Census doesn’t specifically collect data on floor area, a proxy measure that indicates the change in dwelling size is the number of bedrooms. This little used Census data item provides some fantastic insights into the way our dwellings are changing.

As measured by the number of bedrooms, we can see that smaller separate houses are declining in number, while larger separate houses are increasing. At the same time, medium and high-density dwellings are increasing rapidly in number, including those with one and two bedrooms.

The dominance of the separate house

Australia’s cities and regional areas are dominated by separate houses. In 2011, around three-quarters of the dwelling stock were separate houses (75.6%), and this dropped slightly to 73.2% in 2016. Despite this small decline, there were an additional 177,210 separate houses in 2016 compared to five years previously, an increase of around 3%.

Australia’s most common dwelling type is the three bedroom separate house, numbering some 2.77 million or around one-third of the total number of occupied private dwellings. This type of dwelling represents the quintessential post-war Australian dream – the three bedroom house in the suburbs. But is the three bedroom separate house in danger of its long-standing dominant position? Although the number of separate houses in Australia increased between 2011 and 2016, those with three bedrooms declined in number by over 94,000 (-3.3%). Concurrently, the number of separate houses with four or more bedrooms increased by almost 11%. Separate houses with four bedrooms now number almost 2.1 million, up from 1.87 million in 2011 , an increase of almost 200,000. The change in bedroom numbers in separate houses is shown below, highlighting that dwellings with more bedrooms are growing in number, while those with fewer bedrooms are declining in number.

^{Source: ABS, Census of Population and Housing (2011 and 2016)}

Why are these changes in housing happening?

There are a few factors at play, but primarily the loss of smaller separate houses is due to demolition of older housing stock in inner city areas, but also renovations which add more bedrooms to existing houses. Despite moves towards smaller households, there is still a cultural preference for additional bedrooms to cater for guests, children in joint custody arrangements, or just somewhere to store “stuff” e.g. the sewing room. In addition, as indicated above, new homes in Australia have been growing larger over time, and this would be associated with an increase in the number of bedrooms.

A shift towards medium and high-density dwellings

Perceptions and measures of dwelling density vary widely so it’s important to note what “medium and high density” refers to here. It is a relative term and refers to semi-detached, row or terrace house, townhouses, and flats and apartments, rather than separate houses. The changing skylines of our major cities are indicative of a trend towards medium and high-density living, but it is a broad category as it can cover a villa unit in a suburban street to a multi-storey apartment block in the city.

While separate dwellings are getting larger, the trend for medium and high-density dwellings is different. The number of these dwellings grew by 320,240 between 2011 and 2016, an increase of almost 18%. Aside from medium and high-density dwellings with no bedrooms, there was an increase in all types of these dwellings, as shown in the table below. One, two and three bedroom separate houses may be declining in number, but those classified as medium and high density are increasing in number. There are now more than 1 million medium and high-density dwellings with two bedrooms. Interestingly, medium and high-density dwellings with four bedrooms recorded the strongest growth between 2011 and 2016, but coming off a far smaller base.

^{Source: ABS, Census of Population and Housing (2011 and 2016)}

Notably the overall growth of medium and high density dwellings was far stronger than that for separate dwellings between 2011 and 2016 – 18% compared to 3% over the five years. This trend is reflective of contemporary strategic planning policies which aim to intensity existing urban areas in order to slow the outward expansion of the city. It’s interesting that the 2016 Census data shows that medium and high density dwellings of all sizes (except those with no bedrooms) are increasing in number. This does not gel with a general perception that our major cities are awash with “shoebox” apartments in multi-storey blocks, as in fact medium and high density can cover a variety of dwelling types.

Users of .id’s local government information tools will be aware of the importance of geography when looking at these sorts of demographic trends – location matters as these trends differ widely from place to place. Though there has been a change to the way “dwelling structure” is recorded in the Census, examining the data at a broad geographic level (as in this blog) minimises the impact of this on the data. We know from the housing analysis we conduct for our clients that the trend toward larger separate houses has been apparent in the established suburbs of Australian cities for some time. Do the trends described here resonate in your local area? Leave a comment to let us know!

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