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Australia stands ahead of the United States as the builder of the biggest houses across the world, according to a new report.
CommSec’s Home Size report found that the average new house built in Australia in 2019–20 was 235.8 square metres, up by 2.9 per cent on the year prior, and the biggest increase in 11 years. In comparison, US houses built over the 2019 calendar year fell for the fourth year, down by 3 per cent to 2,509 square feet (the equivalent of 233.1 square metres), according to data commissioned by CommSec from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Further, the report reveals that the size of the average Australian apartment has also become bigger, up by 6 per cent over the past year and hitting a decade high of 136.8 square metres.
Overall, the average new home — both houses and apartments — built in 2019–20 was 195.8 square metres, up by 3 per cent over the year to a six-year high.
States and territories
Across Australia’s states and territories, the ACT built the biggest houses in 2019–20, ahead of Victoria, NSW and Western Australia.
In 2019–20, the average floor area of a house built in the ACT was 256.3 sq m, ahead of Victoria (250.3 sq m), NSW (235 sq m) and Western Australia (232.5 sq m). Meanwhile, the smallest new houses built were in Tasmania (179 sq m).
In terms of “other dwellings” such as townhouses and apartments, the biggest dwellings are found in Victoria (155 sq m), followed by Western Australia (150.5 sq m). The next biggest apartments were built in South Australia (149.8 sq m) and the Northern Territory (145.3 sq m). The smallest “other dwellings” are found in NSW (121.3 sq m) and Tasmania (132.5 sq m).
Of all homes built in 2019–20, the average floor area was biggest in Western Australia (218.5 sq m).
Building homes amid COVID-19
According to CommSec chief economist Craig James, in 2018, Australian home buyers had been building progressively smaller houses on average. They had embraced apartments as well as smaller houses on smaller lot sizes. In fact, the size of the average house built last year (2018–19) was the smallest in 17 years.
Therefore, while Aussies were building bigger homes over the past year, the big question is whether the decade-long downtrend in home size has ended, and COVID-19 could be playing a big role in providing an answer.
“Government-imposed lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 virus have prompted more Aussies to reassess their housing needs. With more time spent at home for both leisure and work, some Aussies are looking for bigger homes. Others are coming to the belief that the layout of their home needs changing,” Mr James said.
Before COVID-19, CommSec found that Australian home builders were indicating their preference for slightly bigger homes, a trend proven by apartment size increasing for the past two years and house size increasing in 2019–20 after falling the previous year to 17-year lows.
However, amid the shifting trends in the sizes and styles of homes over the past decade, the pandemic has been throwing other elements into the mix, according to Mr James.
“More Aussies could embrace working from home in a bigger way, opting to move away from apartments in, or near the CBD, in preference for a larger home in a regional or suburban ‘lifestyle’ area.”
Moving forward, Mr James expects the demand for bigger or better homes to have implications for home builders, trades, building materials, homeware stores, electrical stores and housing fitouts, including kitchen and bathroom fixtures and fittings.
“It is also clear that a raft of government agencies and businesses, especially those that are reliant upon or housing-focused, will need to be agile in monitoring the new housing trends,” he concluded.
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