A picture of two Australian “McMansion”-style houses has gone viral.
The photo shows the gutters of the homes in a newly built housing estate in Queensland overlapping.
Photographer Karen Evans, from Newport, south of Brisbane, shared it on Facebook group, where it attracted hundreds of likes, shares and comments.
“We had heard the houses were really close to each other so thought we would have a look at some existing houses in the estate,” she told local newspaper the Redcliffe & Bayside Herald.
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But when she arrived at the Stockland estate, located north of Brisbane, she was shocked to spot two houses built so close together their gutters were virtually touching.
“It was a bit too close,” she told the publication.
“Some of these homes you wouldn’t even have room for a swing set.”
Located on the Redcliffe Peninsula, the Newport waterside community was developed by the Stockland real estate group.
A spokesman told the Redcliffe & Bayside Herald the company was aware of the issue.
“In the early stages of Stockland’s Newport community, the project’s approval allowed a small number of neighbouring properties to build to the same shared boundary in select locations,” the spokesman said.
“We became aware of the issue in 2017 and quickly amended the development application for current and future stages of the community in order to address the distance between neighbouring properties.”
McMansions”are infamous around the world. The large modern houses are considered ostentatious and lacking in architectural integrity.
They are not just an Australian problem. The New Zealand Herald's Sideswipe column today published what could be a close second to Ms Evans' viral picture.
Aucklander Ian Forbes sent the below pic to Sideswipe after spotting two structures in Wellsford that appear to be too close to each other for comfort.
An economics report released late last year revealed that Australians were still building the second-biggest freestanding houses in the world behind the US at an average of 230.8 square metres, although this was down 0.9 per cent over the year.
However, it seems the trend is decreasing, with Australian Bureau of Statistics data revealing Australian homes have shrunk to 22-year lows.
The average floor size of a new home is now 186.3 square metres, down 1.6 per cent over the past 12 months and the smallest since 1996, according to CommSec’s Home Size Trends Report.
Apartments, which now account for around half of all new dwellings, fell in size by 2.7 per cent to an average of 124.8 square metres in 2017-18.
“There are still McMansions being built, but there are fewer of them. The smaller home size reflects the increased building of apartments,” CommSec chief economist Craig James said in the report.
“Generation Y, Millennials, couples and small families want to live closer to work, cafes, restaurants, shopping and airports, and are giving up living space for better proximity to the desirable amenities.”
The average size of freestanding houses peaked in 2011-12 and has stabilised in the past five years. The average house is 8 per cent bigger than 20 years ago and nearly 30 per cent bigger than 30 years ago in 1987-88.
As Australian homes expanded, backyards have shrunk — and last year, outspoken entrepreneur Dick Smith sensationally claimed modern kids were “living like battery hens” as a result.
“For middle class and working people, it was definitely better (in the past) because families could afford a backyard,” he told he told Sydney publication The Beast.
“We were free-range kids whereas now kids … end up living as battery hens and that’s a real pity.”
- news.com.au and New Zealand Herald
