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Single people struggling in the housing crisis to rent homes of their own are being targeted by a new build-to-rent scheme aiming to deliver a number of affordable, compact homes designed for one person.
The new typology of architect-designed 30-35 square-metre City Starters, City Stayers apartments, within buildings that will also have larger units for couples and families, will be trialled in Sydney, with plans to be later introduced to Victoria and Queensland.
“We’ve noticed in inner Sydney that 40 per cent of households are single people and single-person households are one of Australia’s fastest-growing cohorts,” said Aras Labutis, head of urban transformations at developer Coronation Property.
“They’re right at the forefront of the problems in the housing supply, a major issue being affordability, with a real gap in the type of apartments being delivered.
“We see the build-to-rent sector as the ideal place to help. Because we offer so many amenities with our developments, like pools, gyms, co-working spaces, a lounge and rooftop BBQ, it means single people can rent smaller apartments but not be confined to within those four walls.”
For single physiotherapist Claire Park, who has been looking for the past six weeks for a one-bedroom apartment she could afford to rent, the scheme sounds like manna from heaven.
“It’s been so tough as you become involved in a bidding war for every apartment you try to rent, offering more and more to get it, but then you’re competing against couples who can split the cost and the extra payments,” she said.
“But when you’re on your own, it’s so much harder. There’s been about 30 people turning up for every viewing, and the only way you can stand out is by offering more, and that’s hard to afford.”
Park, 32, has finally clinched a unit after going way beyond her budget to offer $765 a week for a unit in Waverley. “But I’d love to see more options on the market for single people,” she said. “I think these new apartments being built sound a great idea.”
Sydney’s median unit rent is $750 as of March, on Domain data, while Melbourne is $600, Brisbane $660 and Perth $695.
The novel singleton apartments, which include services such as electricity and WiFi, will be scattered throughout five apartment buildings in a new development, Precinct 75, in St Peters in Sydney’s inner west that Coronation, in association with build-to-rent platform Nation, will deliver around the end of 2027.
They’ve won favour from independent planning experts, too. Emeritus Professor Hal Pawson of the University of NSW’s City Futures Research Centre says the possibility of smaller apartments has been something the industry has been talking about for a long time.
“While we’ve been looking at a size a little bit bigger than these, personally, I wouldn’t have any criticism of this sort of model as long as they’re well designed to have natural light and ventilation, and amenity isn’t sacrificed,” he said. “In the past, a lot of New Generation Boarding House units were below 30 square metres.
“If you can produce affordable and liveable small units as part of a development, and help make building more units financially viable, what’s not to like about it?”
At the Planning Institute of Australia, senior executive policy and advocacy Jo McClellan is enthusiastic and says these units may suit certain sectors of the market.
“There’s a housing supply crisis that we’ve talked about for many years, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach,” she said. “But smaller apartments with shared amenities will be great for parts of a diverse population at different stages of their lives.
“Having access to a shared community is a great thing too, although that always needs to be managed well.”
Those single apartments have been designed by leading architects to make the most of every centimetre of space available, with full kitchens, laundries and bathrooms, and are fully furnished, with bespoke joinery in place.
COX Architecture director Felipe Miranda, the design lead for Precinct 75, said: “These apartments for single people are designed to within an inch of their lives. They’re almost like a Japanese jewellery box. Everything fits like a glove.
“There’s a small balcony and even a space where you put a cordless vacuum cleaner and a place to hang up a bike; the level of detail is incredible. The size makes the units very affordable.”
The rents, which haven’t yet been fixed, will include utilities, and the communal amenities will include a gym, pool, spa, lounge, podcast room, bar, cinema, music room and co-working spaces.
The residential projects are part of the wider mixed-use complex, with operators such as supermarket IGA, co-working by Regus, and gym One Playground having signed leases.
