Australians' dreams of owning a house with a backyard are increasingly under threat as heavy population pressures force independent homes to be demolished to make way for apartment buildings.
High housing prices have also turned Sydney homes with backyards into luxury goods that only the rich can afford, with the median price of independent homes at more than 1 million.
Tony, Lecturer in Urban and Environmental Planning, Griffith University. Population growth is a major threat to Australian backyard ownership, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, Dr. Matthews (Tony Matthews) said.
In an interview with the Australian Daily Mail on Tuesday, he said, "Australia's backyard is mainly under pressure from development activities, which in turn threatens their viability. Our backyard is getting smaller and smaller, and more apartments without gardens are being built at the same time. "
Australia has had more than two hundred thousand net immigrants a year since 2012, forcing the state government and local government to allow more development in average neighborhoods.
In Sydney's inner and central rings, extending from the inner west to the north bank, more and more independent houses are being demolished near the railway station to make way for apartments or townhouses with small backyards.
Recently, millionaire entrepreneur Dick. Smith (Dick Smith) describes apartment life as "stuffed into tall buildings like termites."
Matthews said this "urban integration" would certainly not help Sydney and Melbourne support Australia's "great Australian dream" of owning a backyard.
"now there are more and more people entering the city, and we are not developing new cities, we are just letting more and more people pour into the cities we already have," he said.
In Sydney, even the Mount Druitt district, 50 kilometers from the center of the city, costs at least six hundred and eighty five thousand yuan for a stand-alone house with a backyard.
The price is also higher than the median Melbourne apartment price of five hundred and seventy three thousand nine hundred and ninety nine yuan, while Sydney's independent home is well above 1 million, and a stand-alone house that can barbecue in the backyard and play cricket is increasingly a luxury.
The median price of the Turramurra, stand-alone house, which is 17 kilometers from downtown, is 2 million, although commuting from here to downtown Sydney takes a 30-minute train.
"it basically means, 'you can still have these things, as long as you can afford them,' which is not the same as it used to be, especially in the 20th century, when almost everyone with a regular salary bought a 1/4 acre building," he said. An independent house with a large backyard is almost a touchable dream. "
"if you want to continue to realize the traditional Australian dream, you have to be able to afford the city of Central, which was built during the post-war period, where house prices are very high," he said.
Because of the lack of well-paid jobs in the less developed regions, this means that more and more people with children have to raise their children in apartments in big cities. Unless they are ready to commute from satellite cities such as Sydney's central coast to the south-west of Melbourne or from satellite cities such as Quillon, south-west of Melbourne.
"if you commute that far every day, it may lead to more stress and harm to your health," Matthews said.
"you might want you to move to a less developed area instead of commuting, so you have to be a few lucky people and find a promising, high-paying job."
The median home price in Sydney fell 5.9 percent to 1.02 million yuan in the year to the end of May, while the median home price in Melbourne rose 1.5 percent to eight hundred and twenty thousand nine hundred and ninety nine yuan, according to house price statistics firm CoreLogic.