00:00In the midst of a housing crisis, Australia has millions of empty bedrooms.
00:06On the surface, it seems like a potential solution.
00:10Five of those bedrooms are in Tony and Julie Papineau's home, which shows reality isn't
00:15that simple.
00:16We have a few bedrooms upstairs that are vacant, since the kids have all moved out.
00:22They've lived here about 20 minutes from the Perth CBD for the last four decades, but now
00:28it's too big.
00:29This is one of our guest rooms as well, and I've turned it into my drum room because that's
00:35my hobby.
00:36The problem is getting people like us out of here.
00:39Where do we go?
00:40We haven't got anywhere that compares, you know, this location is fantastic.
00:46As real estate agents in the area, they know they're not alone.
00:49Often I get asked when I'm talking to potential sellers, they say, well, if you can find me
00:55a nice three bed, two bath on a smaller block, I'd be more than happy to sell this property.
01:01But that's a difficult ask, and a difficult find as well.
01:05Across the nation, Winthrop is one of the suburbs with the most spare capacity.
01:09In other words, homes that are too big.
01:12About 54% of WA's homes have more than one spare room.
01:16Queensland comes in next at 48%.
01:19Across the country, the average is 45%, equating to about 5 million spare rooms.
01:26But there are only 300,000 households who say they need more space.
01:31That means it's not as simple as shuffling people around to get them into the right sized
01:35homes because many of those homes are just too big.
01:38Changing rules around stamp duty or subdividing blocks could help, but experts say neither
01:44is a silver bullet.
01:46What we need is an approach, a strategic approach, where there's some large scale redevelopment
01:51where you can create precincts with good amenities that can cater for the increase in traffic.
01:57That's tricky enough in an established suburb.
02:00I think if we look at a development like this today, we would say that we really did undercook
02:05it in terms of density.
02:06And even harder right now.
02:09Many apartment projects just aren't feasible due to rising construction costs and skill
02:14shortages.
02:15So the lesson is to deliver more housing choice.
02:18We need a much greater diversity of housing types.
02:23We need three bedroom houses, we need townhouses, terrace houses, as well as your apartments,
02:28both low and high rise.
02:30In the meantime, Tony and Julie will keep waiting for a home closer to their needs.
02:35I enjoy my drums here.
02:36I've got an electronic kit, I've got an acoustic kit.
02:38So we've made use of the rooms, but in a different way.
02:42US governments try to unpick decades of development, which has left Australia with too many spare
02:48rooms.
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