Shortcuts to own a home

Innovative ideas with a focus on low costs and sustainability could help solve the housing crunch.

- TOM WATSON

Australia has a housing problem. That’s nothing new, but the laundry list of issues contributing to the broader problem seems to be growing every year.

Take the cost of property for one. The country’s median home price is now $925,000, and the time needed to build up a deposit to purchase a typical property on a median income has ballooned from six years in 1994 to 14 years in 2023, according to the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

Even if you do manage to purchase a property using the traditional routes – home and land packages, off-the-plan apartments – stories abound of significant delays, shoddy buildings and construction company collapses.

There are bright spots amid the gloom, though. Here are three innovative ideas that could help people live in more affordable, more sustainable and better-built homes.

1 Smaller footprint

While necessity is the mother of invention, in some cases, frustration can be the source of innovation. In this case, the frustration came from a group of architects who were tired of designing apartments purely for investment rather than as homes for people to live in.

The solution was Nightingale Housing. For the past decade, Nightingale’s mission has been to design and oversee the construction of housing that prioritises sustainability, community and affordability.

“We are trying to reorient the discussion and show people what is possible in terms of living close together, living in smaller-footprint homes and showing people that it’s possible to live a fantastic life at any stage in an apartment,” explains Dan McKenna, Nightingale Housing’s chief executive.