May 26, 2025 • 16 mins
- Steve Lowe, Director at the Agent Team Canberra provides his thoughts on how to know if the first offer you receive when selling a property is a good offer, and whether to take it, or leave it
- Greg Weller, Executive Director at HIA ACT and Southern NSW discusses the new changes to the ACT planning rules
- Are formal dining rooms still a thing? Julie Dalmaso, Director at JMD Design talks about how the space that once was a formal dining room is now being used in modern day living
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Cameron Renee's real estate show on Mix one oh six
point three be the Envy of Canberra Live in de
Burgert Northborne Village by JW Land now selling. See here
we are Cam with another real estate show podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yes, indeed, this is a look back at some of
the discussions that we had and there was a big
one with the ACD government making major changes through the
weekend announcing those changes are by the Act Planning Rules
and so we spoke to Greg Weller from HIA Act
in southern New South Wales just to unpack that and
to see what it means for our suburbs on the ground.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
That's right, and there's been this term thrown around, you know,
middle housing, all the missing middle and that's been thrown
around a lot since it came out. So we explored
what that means and kind of dug down the details
on that one.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Our old mate Steve Lowe from Agent ten Canbra joined
us once again as well.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, to talk about should you take the first offer
and how do you know if it's a good offer,
because I mean, how do you know, you.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Know, are you getting lowball? That's what we want.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
To know exactly, And so we got all that information
from him and formal dining rooms because I watch a
lot of housey shows like selling houses and all that
stuff in my partner like we love it and where
they go in and do up homes that need to
be sold. That's right, And a lot of them have
still have those formal dining rooms, so they go in
and often turn them into something else. So I thought,
(01:23):
you know, why don't we find out what they're used.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, and also talk about whether there's still a thing
as well, especially in architecturally designed homes. Are they still
being included the formal dining room?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yes, we certainly have one at our house, but we
don't use it as a dining room.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So you'd have it all decked out as a big theater,
wouldn't you.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Oh gosh, No, it's like a desk to pretend off
it scenario.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Okay, So that's what we touched on through the weekend.
It's all ahead of us right now in the podcast.
Thanks for listening. It's Mix one O six point three.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Or I can tomorrow not tomorrow, Tomorrow's today, Saturday?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
What day it is today? Are we exploring the topic?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Should I take the first when you're selling your home?
And how do you know if it is a good offer?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
And this is the thing, right like you, I mean,
you set your price, or you have the conversation with
your agents and those who know yes, and then you
think you come up with the right bracket. Yes, and
then you get an offer and it's just like, oh,
it's a little bit under that, or it might be
if you lucky, might be a bit over it.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Or do I you know you asked, do I wait
and just see what happens? But it can be risky
to wait as well. Steve Lowe is a director of
agent Team camer No doubt comes across this all the time. Steve,
good morning, Hey guys, can you give us like a
typical scenario of how a first offer is made and
sort of what happens from there?
Speaker 5 (02:38):
Okay, So quite often we will advertise our properties online
on Thursdays, and so what happens is it goes online
and then straight away you will start getting phone calls
and email inquiries of people wanting to inspect it. So
sometimes we'll sneak them through on the same day and
then that buyer might really like the property and make
an offer on the same day. It was advertised for
a seller, they start to wonder, oh, is that a
(02:58):
good starter or is that a good offer?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Okay, yeah, and you would you would really start to
second guess yourself. So what should be taken into consideration
when a first offer is received.
Speaker 5 (03:09):
There's lots of things to consider. It's not always about
the actual number. So sometimes if you factory in the
timing of it. So if you've already purchased another property
and you've got a looming settlement date and the offer
that's been made is within your bracket, but the timing
is really really beneficial, then that has a lot of
values to that offer, and also the finance conditions of
(03:30):
the buyer. So it might be a cash buyer, so
you know, if you were to accept that offer. Sometimes
we put them on the market. I close a business
because it's been a very fast transacting buyer.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Does it complicate things too? If someone's selling auction and
they get an early offer like that, like they're probably thinking, oh,
should I just wait because you know it can creep
up at auction? Or do I just want to get signed,
sealed delivered Now I'm sure that happens all the time.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Oh my gosh. Yeah, So often, so yeah, it can
open a bit of a can of worm. So with
our sellers we like to sort of be up front
at the start and say, with this one, we think
we should let it run through the auction day with
no pre auction offers and then that way you're not tempted.
Or alternatively, we think that if there is a strong
preuction offer, then you should consider it. So we set
it up right from the start.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And so do you reckon that many first offers are
just low ball attempts, are getting the best price possible,
Like you just throw a number out and just say
though they might be desperate, they might just go for
a DC. That happen.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
No, So I tell you what this is where getting
an agent that is transacting good volume in the current
market makes all the difference. Like you've got an agent
as your guide to navigate this marketplace. So a good
agent that's doing lots of transactions will be able to
tell you categorically that that is a great offer and
that should be considered. Yeah, just can't give that advice
(04:51):
and you're sort of being guided by misinformation or somebody
is really keen for a commission check. But low ball
offers no negotiating in the right way can be a
really really good offer.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, okay, And so there's probably people listening right now
who are selling their homes and they might have an
open today and someone might come through and love it
and make an offer today. For people like that, and
for anyone going through this, what's your number one piece
of advice?
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Just be open and transparent with the agent as a buyer.
So don't try to don't try to be difficult to
deal with. Just say, look, we're super interested in the property.
What sort of numbers do we need to be able
to reach to be able to buy it? And are
they happy for a far sale or they're kind of
more committed to the auction process.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Okay, and let the conversation enchew from there.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
Yeah, it's not that hard, it's easy. Can them.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Come on? I wish I was buying the property of
the week today. There you go. I'll throw that one
out for you one day, one day, yeah, yeah, yeah,
on the twelfth, the twelfth of never Yeah all right.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Steve, Well, yeah, very interesting. Thank you so much for
sharing that with us this morning. Have a great weekend,
you do. Steve Low, who's the director of Agent team
in Camber there. Well can we had the news come
through earlier in the week about some of these pretty
big changes to acts planning rules. Yeah, and it talked
a lot about, you know, the missing middle middle housing
(06:15):
and how that's the area that's going to be impacted
by these changes.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
And there was a flurry of emails between us, wasn't there.
It's just like have you seen this? Have you seen that?
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Ye?
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I'm like, have we got on this weekend? You're like, yeah,
already got it. So, you know, we had that conversation,
which is great, and so we're going to dig down
and learn more about what it actually means for people
this morning. And Greg Weller is the executive director at
the hia AC teen Southern New South Wales.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Hey Greg, good morning, here are you?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yes, I'm good, Thank you. Now, look, we're hearing this term,
you know, missing middle or middle housing more and more.
Now for anyone hearing that for the first time, what
does it mean?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yeah, Look, it's what we're talking about you and we
talk about the missing middle it's any housing tide pretty
much from duel occup and seek up to lower rise
apartments say three stories or slipping it another way if
we take out detached houses and apartment towers, it's everything
else in the middle, and that's where it gets the name.
The missing really refers to the fact that we're just
(07:13):
not building enough of it. And this is not just
a Canbra problem if something happens around Australia, but certainly here.
If we do look at how our city is going
at the moment, we're building detached homes, building apartment towers.
Not enough of this product families and singles in the middle.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Okay, So like townhouses and that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, and low rise apartments. Now, people when they hear
the term apartment as part of this will probably be
taken back. An apartment simply two dwellings, one on top
of another, so it could own two stories high. And
that is one of the things being introduced as part
of these changes.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Okay, And so what were the changes that were announced.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
So if we look at our city and we'd imagine
it as a map, about eighty percent of it that
you can build homes on is called are Z one,
and that's our suburban area without attached homes. Then a
bit over half of the rest of the left those
about thirteen percent is our z two, which is the
suburban core, so slowly as we move from the outer
suburbs into the town centers. The idea is the city
(08:15):
gets a little bit more dense as a stamps to
build townhouses and some of attached housing in our Z
two and single houses in our ZED one. These changes,
to put fairly steeply, are allowing some of the houses
that are low impact by density, such townhouses, terraces, these
low rise apartments. We're now allowed to build those in
(08:37):
our Z two or thirty. That's what's proposed and in
terms of them, sorry in our Z one. In terms
of our Z two to keep the relativity and I
guess the increase in density as we get to the
town centers, we've added an extra floor onto the and
now you can build three stories in our Z two.
We've also taken away some of the arbitrary controls on
(08:59):
dwelling in it and more letting the planning system and
what designers can come up with dictate how many wells
are there, so they will hopefully give us more dwellings.
Are the two that are well designed, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
And is the aim of it all to kind of
open up more housing options?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah? Absolutely, because as we know, getting a block of
land building attached home is getting very expensive and certainly
there's a lot of limitations on how much is available.
At the other end of the scale, high rise apartments
is not for anybody, and it's also very expensive because
we wanted to build apartments that are going to be
super family three or four bedrooms. Again, because of the
(09:40):
cost of that type of building, they start to get
out of reach of people. So it's a good middle
ground here, a townhouse, a terrace where people can maybe
have a little bit of outdoor space. They can be
living in lower impact, lower density areas, but it is
still big enough to have a family and importantly it
is still affordable as well. So trying to slowly increase
(10:05):
the density of the city they call it gentle dead city,
so that we can get pretty uses of our existence
infrastructure and make sure that the city does just spread
at the free.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Us tonight, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Well, it's you know, unlocking
more housing options is certainly an ongoing discussion that's being
had at all sorts of levels here in Canberra and
right around the country as well. Greg, Thank you so
much for explaining all that for us this morning. Thank
you thank you. Greg Weller, who's the executive director of
the Hiaact in Southern New South Wales. Well can. My
(10:39):
partner Jim and I were watching Selling Houses Australia the
other night.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You're mad for these, aren't you.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I love this sort of stuff and they go into
homes and get them ready to sell, ones that need
a lot of work. And there was a particular home
recently that had a formal dining room that wasn't being
used as a dining room. It was being used as
a butler pantry. And I use that term very loosely
because they chucked in a couple of IQA shells in
(11:05):
there and just dumped their air fryer and their toaster
and or their rubbish in there. It wasn't an actual butler's.
Speaker 6 (11:11):
Pantry because I mean for older homes, right, yeah, the
dinner party, especially through the seventies. I can remember being
a youngster and on Saturday night welcoming the guests, yes right,
and then.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You'd be allowed to stay up to eight o'clock and
watch the world around us on Channel seven. We're going back, right, Yes,
indeed we are, And then the dinner party would ensue
after we went off to bed and that was a
big thing. So dining rooms, ye, were definitely part of
design and architecture, were they for sure?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
And so if you go looking around at houses that
are on the market, unless they're brand new, they will
most likely have a formal dining room space. But people
still using them for the original purpose. I think these
days it's more like Christmas time maybe right, maybe at Easter,
but let's find out a bit more about that. Julie
dal Masso is director at j M D Design.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Hi, Julie, good morning, Hey, going good.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Now, firstly, can you just give us a brief history
of the formal dining room in Australian homes.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Well, it just depends on how far you want to
go back, but we probably don't have the time for that.
But originally, like in the eighteen hundreds kind of era,
it was very formal. It was quite a distance from
the kitchen because they had butlers and things like that,
and they were very formal and decorative so that people could,
you know, show their status and entertain a lot of people. Also,
(12:31):
there wasn't restaurants around, so that's where it kind of started.
And then it skipped to the fifties where it was
not used as much. They didn't have the formal dining rooms.
They had more the dining space closer to the kitchen.
It was still bigger and formal, but it was closer
to the kitchen and more open plan like we have now.
And then in the eighties and nineties they kind of
(12:52):
went back to having that formal, separate dining space, but
a lot of them carpeted them for some reason.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I'm not sure why.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
And so then you know, coming forward, people don't tend
to use them because it's hard work, you know, you
eating in a space where there is carpet, and then
everybody wants to be around the kitchen in the hub,
so they tend to not use them as much, and
so they kind of get just left behind and as
you said, just use at Christmas time once or twice
a year.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And that all said, though, do you still see some
sort of formal spaces in modern day designs or is
it you're done?
Speaker 4 (13:24):
That's it you do in you know, really big custom
homes that people do like to have like a formal
dining space, and people do still love to use them
like that, but it's rare.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, yeah, indeed, And so Julie for people buying older
houses with these spaces, and like you say, lots of
houses from the eighties and nineties that come up for
sale have them. Of course, what's your advice on some
alternative use.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
You can't just bug in the ic of shelves and
call it it.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Was designer design of space. So we have actually inverted
quite a few of them, and there's a whole bunch
of ideas that I've got. So home offices, especially around COVID,
we converted so many dining rooms into the home offices
that could accommodate one or two people, and that also helped,
(14:16):
you know, keep the office separate to the living, because
you know, when you're doing work from home, you need
to have that kind of space where you can be
have some quiet space and be away from everyone else
in all of the noise. Also, we've done a lot
where we've converted into like a beautiful library and also
had like a record player in there so people can
go in and have it as a quiet space and
(14:38):
have you know, kind of moody colors and lighting. And
then there's the teenage breakout spaces that we've done where
you know, my kids are big, we need a space
for them that's separate and they can watch movies and
play on their phones and have all their friends over.
Also play rooms or you know, spaces for younger kids
where their toys can just be left out and no
(14:58):
one has to worry about cleaning all of that up
and it's not in the living space. We've done one
that beautifully, which was a wine room and entertaining language.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Now, yes, I was sort of going to sleep when
you're talking about kids. Hang one, keep talking.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Yeah, well cocktail bar. Yeah, so just you know, your
ambient lighting and your moody decor and that grown up
space for entertaining. We've yes, And also we've done creative spaces,
so like a hobby space, you know where someone likes
to you know, whether it's creating music, orse doing sewing
or art or whatever it is that you can close off.
(15:39):
But also we've done a couple where we've put Murphy
beds in them so that it looks like joinery and
then it can and put some doors on it where
it can convert into a guest bedroom but also be
used as a living space.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Gotcha, Okay, so weeah way more than what I realized.
That's for sure, Camstar stuck on the wine all right, Julie,
Well that's super interesting. Love that of history as well
at the start there.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
That's really good.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
No worries at all.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Have a great day.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Thank you you too, Julie dl Maasso, director at JMD Design.
See I was listening when she said, when you put
all the kids stuff and shut that off, I'm thinking
all the plastic toys and dolls and stuff, and then
you're thinking of the wine room. But it all sounds awesome, doesn't.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
It really does. Plenty of good ideas. Zev Well, those
are the interviews we most enjoyed in last week's Mix
one O six point three real Estate Show. If you
love hearing about the latest trends, or you're just up
for a sticky beak, be sure to drop by for
a listen this Saturday between nine and ten Jam and
Rene's Real Estate Show on Mix one O six point
three
Cameron Renee's real estate show on Mix one oh six
point three be the Envy of Canberra Live in de
Burgert Northborne Village by JW Land now selling. See here
we are Cam with another real estate show podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yes, indeed, this is a look back at some of
the discussions that we had and there was a big
one with the ACD government making major changes through the
weekend announcing those changes are by the Act Planning Rules
and so we spoke to Greg Weller from HIA Act
in southern New South Wales just to unpack that and
to see what it means for our suburbs on the ground.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
That's right, and there's been this term thrown around, you know,
middle housing, all the missing middle and that's been thrown
around a lot since it came out. So we explored
what that means and kind of dug down the details
on that one.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Our old mate Steve Lowe from Agent ten Canbra joined
us once again as well.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, to talk about should you take the first offer
and how do you know if it's a good offer,
because I mean, how do you know, you.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Know, are you getting lowball? That's what we want.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
To know exactly, And so we got all that information
from him and formal dining rooms because I watch a
lot of housey shows like selling houses and all that
stuff in my partner like we love it and where
they go in and do up homes that need to
be sold. That's right, And a lot of them have
still have those formal dining rooms, so they go in
and often turn them into something else. So I thought,
(01:23):
you know, why don't we find out what they're used.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, and also talk about whether there's still a thing
as well, especially in architecturally designed homes. Are they still
being included the formal dining room?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yes, we certainly have one at our house, but we
don't use it as a dining room.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So you'd have it all decked out as a big theater,
wouldn't you.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Oh gosh, No, it's like a desk to pretend off
it scenario.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Okay, So that's what we touched on through the weekend.
It's all ahead of us right now in the podcast.
Thanks for listening. It's Mix one O six point three.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Or I can tomorrow not tomorrow, Tomorrow's today, Saturday?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
What day it is today? Are we exploring the topic?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Should I take the first when you're selling your home?
And how do you know if it is a good offer?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
And this is the thing, right like you, I mean,
you set your price, or you have the conversation with
your agents and those who know yes, and then you
think you come up with the right bracket. Yes, and
then you get an offer and it's just like, oh,
it's a little bit under that, or it might be
if you lucky, might be a bit over it.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Or do I you know you asked, do I wait
and just see what happens? But it can be risky
to wait as well. Steve Lowe is a director of
agent Team camer No doubt comes across this all the time. Steve,
good morning, Hey guys, can you give us like a
typical scenario of how a first offer is made and
sort of what happens from there?
Speaker 5 (02:38):
Okay, So quite often we will advertise our properties online
on Thursdays, and so what happens is it goes online
and then straight away you will start getting phone calls
and email inquiries of people wanting to inspect it. So
sometimes we'll sneak them through on the same day and
then that buyer might really like the property and make
an offer on the same day. It was advertised for
a seller, they start to wonder, oh, is that a
(02:58):
good starter or is that a good offer?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Okay, yeah, and you would you would really start to
second guess yourself. So what should be taken into consideration
when a first offer is received.
Speaker 5 (03:09):
There's lots of things to consider. It's not always about
the actual number. So sometimes if you factory in the
timing of it. So if you've already purchased another property
and you've got a looming settlement date and the offer
that's been made is within your bracket, but the timing
is really really beneficial, then that has a lot of
values to that offer, and also the finance conditions of
(03:30):
the buyer. So it might be a cash buyer, so
you know, if you were to accept that offer. Sometimes
we put them on the market. I close a business
because it's been a very fast transacting buyer.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Does it complicate things too? If someone's selling auction and
they get an early offer like that, like they're probably thinking, oh,
should I just wait because you know it can creep
up at auction? Or do I just want to get signed,
sealed delivered Now I'm sure that happens all the time.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Oh my gosh. Yeah, So often, so yeah, it can
open a bit of a can of worm. So with
our sellers we like to sort of be up front
at the start and say, with this one, we think
we should let it run through the auction day with
no pre auction offers and then that way you're not tempted.
Or alternatively, we think that if there is a strong
preuction offer, then you should consider it. So we set
it up right from the start.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And so do you reckon that many first offers are
just low ball attempts, are getting the best price possible,
Like you just throw a number out and just say
though they might be desperate, they might just go for
a DC. That happen.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
No, So I tell you what this is where getting
an agent that is transacting good volume in the current
market makes all the difference. Like you've got an agent
as your guide to navigate this marketplace. So a good
agent that's doing lots of transactions will be able to
tell you categorically that that is a great offer and
that should be considered. Yeah, just can't give that advice
(04:51):
and you're sort of being guided by misinformation or somebody
is really keen for a commission check. But low ball
offers no negotiating in the right way can be a
really really good offer.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, okay, And so there's probably people listening right now
who are selling their homes and they might have an
open today and someone might come through and love it
and make an offer today. For people like that, and
for anyone going through this, what's your number one piece
of advice?
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Just be open and transparent with the agent as a buyer.
So don't try to don't try to be difficult to
deal with. Just say, look, we're super interested in the property.
What sort of numbers do we need to be able
to reach to be able to buy it? And are
they happy for a far sale or they're kind of
more committed to the auction process.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Okay, and let the conversation enchew from there.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
Yeah, it's not that hard, it's easy. Can them.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Come on? I wish I was buying the property of
the week today. There you go. I'll throw that one
out for you one day, one day, yeah, yeah, yeah,
on the twelfth, the twelfth of never Yeah all right.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Steve, Well, yeah, very interesting. Thank you so much for
sharing that with us this morning. Have a great weekend,
you do. Steve Low, who's the director of Agent team
in Camber there. Well can we had the news come
through earlier in the week about some of these pretty
big changes to acts planning rules. Yeah, and it talked
a lot about, you know, the missing middle middle housing
(06:15):
and how that's the area that's going to be impacted
by these changes.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
And there was a flurry of emails between us, wasn't there.
It's just like have you seen this? Have you seen that?
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Ye?
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I'm like, have we got on this weekend? You're like, yeah,
already got it. So, you know, we had that conversation,
which is great, and so we're going to dig down
and learn more about what it actually means for people
this morning. And Greg Weller is the executive director at
the hia AC teen Southern New South Wales.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Hey Greg, good morning, here are you?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yes, I'm good, Thank you. Now, look, we're hearing this term,
you know, missing middle or middle housing more and more.
Now for anyone hearing that for the first time, what
does it mean?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yeah, Look, it's what we're talking about you and we
talk about the missing middle it's any housing tide pretty
much from duel occup and seek up to lower rise
apartments say three stories or slipping it another way if
we take out detached houses and apartment towers, it's everything
else in the middle, and that's where it gets the name.
The missing really refers to the fact that we're just
(07:13):
not building enough of it. And this is not just
a Canbra problem if something happens around Australia, but certainly here.
If we do look at how our city is going
at the moment, we're building detached homes, building apartment towers.
Not enough of this product families and singles in the middle.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Okay, So like townhouses and that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, and low rise apartments. Now, people when they hear
the term apartment as part of this will probably be
taken back. An apartment simply two dwellings, one on top
of another, so it could own two stories high. And
that is one of the things being introduced as part
of these changes.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Okay, And so what were the changes that were announced.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
So if we look at our city and we'd imagine
it as a map, about eighty percent of it that
you can build homes on is called are Z one,
and that's our suburban area without attached homes. Then a
bit over half of the rest of the left those
about thirteen percent is our z two, which is the
suburban core, so slowly as we move from the outer
suburbs into the town centers. The idea is the city
(08:15):
gets a little bit more dense as a stamps to
build townhouses and some of attached housing in our Z
two and single houses in our ZED one. These changes,
to put fairly steeply, are allowing some of the houses
that are low impact by density, such townhouses, terraces, these
low rise apartments. We're now allowed to build those in
(08:37):
our Z two or thirty. That's what's proposed and in
terms of them, sorry in our Z one. In terms
of our Z two to keep the relativity and I
guess the increase in density as we get to the
town centers, we've added an extra floor onto the and
now you can build three stories in our Z two.
We've also taken away some of the arbitrary controls on
(08:59):
dwelling in it and more letting the planning system and
what designers can come up with dictate how many wells
are there, so they will hopefully give us more dwellings.
Are the two that are well designed, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
And is the aim of it all to kind of
open up more housing options?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah? Absolutely, because as we know, getting a block of
land building attached home is getting very expensive and certainly
there's a lot of limitations on how much is available.
At the other end of the scale, high rise apartments
is not for anybody, and it's also very expensive because
we wanted to build apartments that are going to be
super family three or four bedrooms. Again, because of the
(09:40):
cost of that type of building, they start to get
out of reach of people. So it's a good middle
ground here, a townhouse, a terrace where people can maybe
have a little bit of outdoor space. They can be
living in lower impact, lower density areas, but it is
still big enough to have a family and importantly it
is still affordable as well. So trying to slowly increase
(10:05):
the density of the city they call it gentle dead city,
so that we can get pretty uses of our existence
infrastructure and make sure that the city does just spread
at the free.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Us tonight, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Well, it's you know, unlocking
more housing options is certainly an ongoing discussion that's being
had at all sorts of levels here in Canberra and
right around the country as well. Greg, Thank you so
much for explaining all that for us this morning. Thank
you thank you. Greg Weller, who's the executive director of
the Hiaact in Southern New South Wales. Well can. My
(10:39):
partner Jim and I were watching Selling Houses Australia the
other night.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You're mad for these, aren't you.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I love this sort of stuff and they go into
homes and get them ready to sell, ones that need
a lot of work. And there was a particular home
recently that had a formal dining room that wasn't being
used as a dining room. It was being used as
a butler pantry. And I use that term very loosely
because they chucked in a couple of IQA shells in
(11:05):
there and just dumped their air fryer and their toaster
and or their rubbish in there. It wasn't an actual butler's.
Speaker 6 (11:11):
Pantry because I mean for older homes, right, yeah, the
dinner party, especially through the seventies. I can remember being
a youngster and on Saturday night welcoming the guests, yes right,
and then.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You'd be allowed to stay up to eight o'clock and
watch the world around us on Channel seven. We're going back, right, Yes,
indeed we are, And then the dinner party would ensue
after we went off to bed and that was a
big thing. So dining rooms, ye, were definitely part of
design and architecture, were they for sure?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
And so if you go looking around at houses that
are on the market, unless they're brand new, they will
most likely have a formal dining room space. But people
still using them for the original purpose. I think these
days it's more like Christmas time maybe right, maybe at Easter,
but let's find out a bit more about that. Julie
dal Masso is director at j M D Design.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Hi, Julie, good morning, Hey, going good.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Now, firstly, can you just give us a brief history
of the formal dining room in Australian homes.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Well, it just depends on how far you want to
go back, but we probably don't have the time for that.
But originally, like in the eighteen hundreds kind of era,
it was very formal. It was quite a distance from
the kitchen because they had butlers and things like that,
and they were very formal and decorative so that people could,
you know, show their status and entertain a lot of people. Also,
(12:31):
there wasn't restaurants around, so that's where it kind of started.
And then it skipped to the fifties where it was
not used as much. They didn't have the formal dining rooms.
They had more the dining space closer to the kitchen.
It was still bigger and formal, but it was closer
to the kitchen and more open plan like we have now.
And then in the eighties and nineties they kind of
(12:52):
went back to having that formal, separate dining space, but
a lot of them carpeted them for some reason.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I'm not sure why.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
And so then you know, coming forward, people don't tend
to use them because it's hard work, you know, you
eating in a space where there is carpet, and then
everybody wants to be around the kitchen in the hub,
so they tend to not use them as much, and
so they kind of get just left behind and as
you said, just use at Christmas time once or twice
a year.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And that all said, though, do you still see some
sort of formal spaces in modern day designs or is
it you're done?
Speaker 4 (13:24):
That's it you do in you know, really big custom
homes that people do like to have like a formal
dining space, and people do still love to use them
like that, but it's rare.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, yeah, indeed, And so Julie for people buying older
houses with these spaces, and like you say, lots of
houses from the eighties and nineties that come up for
sale have them. Of course, what's your advice on some
alternative use.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
You can't just bug in the ic of shelves and
call it it.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Was designer design of space. So we have actually inverted
quite a few of them, and there's a whole bunch
of ideas that I've got. So home offices, especially around COVID,
we converted so many dining rooms into the home offices
that could accommodate one or two people, and that also helped,
(14:16):
you know, keep the office separate to the living, because
you know, when you're doing work from home, you need
to have that kind of space where you can be
have some quiet space and be away from everyone else
in all of the noise. Also, we've done a lot
where we've converted into like a beautiful library and also
had like a record player in there so people can
go in and have it as a quiet space and
(14:38):
have you know, kind of moody colors and lighting. And
then there's the teenage breakout spaces that we've done where
you know, my kids are big, we need a space
for them that's separate and they can watch movies and
play on their phones and have all their friends over.
Also play rooms or you know, spaces for younger kids
where their toys can just be left out and no
(14:58):
one has to worry about cleaning all of that up
and it's not in the living space. We've done one
that beautifully, which was a wine room and entertaining language.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Now, yes, I was sort of going to sleep when
you're talking about kids. Hang one, keep talking.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Yeah, well cocktail bar. Yeah, so just you know, your
ambient lighting and your moody decor and that grown up
space for entertaining. We've yes, And also we've done creative spaces,
so like a hobby space, you know where someone likes
to you know, whether it's creating music, orse doing sewing
or art or whatever it is that you can close off.
(15:39):
But also we've done a couple where we've put Murphy
beds in them so that it looks like joinery and
then it can and put some doors on it where
it can convert into a guest bedroom but also be
used as a living space.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Gotcha, Okay, so weeah way more than what I realized.
That's for sure, Camstar stuck on the wine all right, Julie,
Well that's super interesting. Love that of history as well
at the start there.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
That's really good.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
No worries at all.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Have a great day.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Thank you you too, Julie dl Maasso, director at JMD Design.
See I was listening when she said, when you put
all the kids stuff and shut that off, I'm thinking
all the plastic toys and dolls and stuff, and then
you're thinking of the wine room. But it all sounds awesome, doesn't.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
It really does. Plenty of good ideas. Zev Well, those
are the interviews we most enjoyed in last week's Mix
one O six point three real Estate Show. If you
love hearing about the latest trends, or you're just up
for a sticky beak, be sure to drop by for
a listen this Saturday between nine and ten Jam and
Rene's Real Estate Show on Mix one O six point
three
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!