Are Strata Buildings Child and Family Unfriendly?

6 reasons why this might be true and is holding back strata title living …

Is it possible that strata apartments are unwelcoming to children and families? And, is that just due to design issues? If so, perhaps we should rethink our approach and make strata title a better place for families with children.

[9.0 minutes estimated reading time, 1767 words]

Introduction

I recently read an article by Tayrn Paris in The Urban Developer, ‘Why No One is Developing Larger Apartment Stock in Melbourne’ that queries why so few larger apartments are being built in Melbourne’s inner and middle-ring suburbs, which was forcing families to outer-ring suburbs.

This dilemma resonated with me as my personal experience was that whilst I’d seen many large family friendly apartments in Europe and the United States, they were rare in Australia.  And, that shortage makes Australian strata apartments unsuitable for young, larger, and growing families.

So, in this article, I explore why that is and whether or not strata buildings are child and family-unfriendly.

After all, if more people are going to be living in higher density in the future, many of them will be families with children.

Some data, research, and planning information

The Urban Developer article relied on a research paper from Ignite [a not-for-profit research group supported by the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning], ‘Unlocking the largest market segment for apartment living with BTR’ which collated data about new apartments and explored changes that made them more family friendly or unfriendly as well as VIC Planning’s 2019 report about population projections and needs ‘Victoria in Future 2019’.

They demonstrate a significant focus on and preponderance of singles, couples and non-child families in strata title buildings.

And, the strata title data published by UNSW City Futures Research Centre indicates that only 13% of the residents in Australian strata buildings are couples with children, 6% are single parents, and, 9% are group homes. So, apartments with children in them are a pretty small minority.

So, the numbers support the conclusion that families with children are not commonplace in Australian strata buildings.

Why is that?

6 reasons why strata apartments are child and family unfriendly

So, here are 6 reasons why I believe Australian strata buildings are [or might be] inherently family-unfriendly.

1.    Urban planning, development, and investment factors

Urban planning controls are a key factor since they have traditionally been focused on minimum apartment sizing based controls that encouraged higher-density for strata developments where there were more but smaller apartments on sites, rather than higher potential occupancy levels by housing larger family units. That' is starting to change but it will be decades before there’s any significant shift.

Formal, informal and commercial development incentives [for profits] have and continue to encourage developers to build accommodation for singles, couples and small/early family units only since they can build more of them and these groups have more per capita disposable incomes to devote to purchase prices [making them higher]. Plus, more smaller apartments in a strata development spreads the risk.

The influence of incentives for negatively geared rental property investments is also a contributing factor, driving demand for smaller strata apartments [especially in inner-city areas] for students, singles, temporary residents, pre-property market entrants. That supply-side impact plus the pattern of shorter-term rentals in Australia also mean there’s lower demand for family-sized rental strata apartments.

Finally, the serviced apartment model for strata buildings which relies on smaller and short term apartment designs and the growth of AirBNB listed strata apartments for the secondary tourism and business travel market also favour smaller strata apartments.

2.   Apartment & building design

Leaving aside the size of strata apartments being built, there are also many design features of strata apartments that are geared to singles or couples and not children and families.

Some examples of design trends and issues I’ve seen include the following.

The trend towards trendy designer-inspired strata apartment building developments that attract the urban yuppie and inner suburb gentrifiers with higher buying capacity. Not only are these stylised interiors a bit too serious for kids, but they can be delicate and susceptible to damage from kids with sticky and dirty fingers and clumsy habits.

The proliferation of more elegant and adult-centric common area facilities like gymnasiums, plunge pools, spas, saunas, reading rooms, meeting rooms, etc are also not that interesting to kids and families. They’re great for me, but not so much for 7-year-olds.

And there’s a lack of really useful, fun, high quality, and, safe exterior child spaces in strata buildings for communal use.

Inside the apartments, the spaces are also not so child or family-tailored. The Ignite team’s research illustrated some interior design features that make a strata apartment more suitable to families [as the drawing below illustrates].

And, when a family wants to make modifications to the apartment geared for the benefit of children they can and often do encounter strata opposition and refusals. Remember this 2012 SMH news report about a strata building’s refusal to allow balcony child safety nets ‘Parents denied safety nets to protect children in apartments’?

So, original designs and facilities in strata buildings need to change and later changes should be permitted and made to better accommodate these little future strata owners.

3.   Strata by-laws

Many states have by-laws that effectively discriminate against children in relation to the use of the common property and sometimes in their behaviour in their own strata apartments too as follows.

In New South Wales, there’s actually a standard specific by-law about children in common property that reads as follows:

8.   Children playing on common property

(1)  Any child for whom an owner or occupier of a lot is responsible may play on any area of the common property that is designated by the owners corporation for that purpose but may only use an area designated for swimming while under adult supervision.

(2)  An owner or occupier of a lot must not permit any child for whom the owner or occupier is responsible, unless accompanied by an adult exercising effective control, to be or remain on common property that is a laundry, car parking area or other area of possible danger or hazard to children.

There’s also a similar standard by-law about children in South Australia, but not in other states.

However, whilst other states don’t have a similar standard kid by-law, they all have standard by-laws about noise and behaviour on common property that effectively require everyone [including children] to not do things anywhere in the strata building or use common property in ways that unreasonably disturb other people.

So, since children like and need to play and are inherently noisy and disturbing, these kinds of by-laws are stacked against children and families.

I also wonder whether the principles in Cooper’s Case about blanket bans in by-laws might affect these kinds of anti-kid controls [see my article ‘The Dogs of Strata War or The By-Law is Dead: Long Live the By-Law’]?

4.   Noise issues

Noise issues are a perennial problem in strata buildings. 

And, whilst they are bad enough between consenting noisy adults who can and often should moderate their behaviour, they can be even worse when they involve children who can’t easily control the noise they make [and probably shouldn’t anyway].

So, noise by-laws, behaviour controls, and enforcement also discriminate against children, families and family friendly activities.

Some examples I’ve come across of noise complaints in strata buildings directed to children and families include the following:

• Practising piano and other instruments since it can sound bad when learning, occurs repeatedly and needs to be for longer periods as their skills develop.

• Playing in common areas or strata apartments where kids get excited, shriek, crash into things, stomp, or jump on the floor.

• Hitting or bouncing balls against walls or floors in strata apartments or common areas as they practice or play their sports. 

• Scooting and biking all over the building [inside and out].

• Leaving strollers and prams in corridors outside strata apartment entry doors.

• Birthday parties held in strata apartments and common areas.

• Too many children in pool areas at once.

Are these things so bad and have we become so intolerant that we need to stifle children and families with our strata laws?

After all, If Sir Donald Bradman had grown up in a strata building he may never have developed into such a great cricket batsman as it is reported that, as a child, he practiced by hitting a golf ball against a water tank.

5.    The association between pets and families

It’s very common that families with children also have pets.  After all, it’s one of the ways children learn responsibility and how to care for other living things.

So, families with children and pets have suffered the double whammy in many strata buildings, with neither being welcomed, anti-pet by-laws being commonly made and enforced, and, serious debates occurring about the applicable rules concerning animals.

I’ve heard of families leaving strata living because they had to make a choice between staying without their pet or moving out.

In a perverse way, things like the new law changes affecting pet by-laws and approvals in New South Wales [see my article ‘A Few NSW Strata Law Quickies’] mean that pets will have better rights in New South Wales strata buildings than children.

6.      Strata demographics

The UNSW City Futures Research Centre 2020 strata data indicates that, at best, only 28% of Australian strata apartments have children living there.

The data also shows that 59% of Australian strata apartments are occupied by single adults or couples.

So, children are a strata minority.

I’m not sure if this a result of the empty nester phenomenon but it certainly is a factor. And, there are probably a lot more factors at play on this topic which would be great to see explored further.

Regardless, of why it occurs, the minority status of children and their families means that their needs of living in strata buildings are not the same as the majority of other strata residents and decision-makers.

I’ve written previously about the consequences that can result from a majority of the people in charge of running strata buildings being from a different generation and demographic from the majority of people living in them [see my article ‘7 + 3 Insights into 2020 Australian Strata Data’].

In the case of child and family friendly strata buildings, it creates a self perpetuating cycle, where the needs and preferences of adult residents virtually always dominate the issues, discussions and decisions.

Conclusions

There are commercial, legal, structural and demographic reasons why Australian strata buildings are child and family unfriendly.

That’s a problem when housing density is increasing and more people [young, old, singles, couples, and families] will be living in strata buildings.

And, the current commercial incentives and demographic characteristics of strata apartment owners and residents work against changing that pattern.

I think the lack of children and families is holding the strata sector back and is just one more reason why many view strata living as a second rate or sub-optimal housing choice.

So, let’s start changing that.

June 08, 2021

Francesco ...