A Slow Count on Australian Strata Numbers

Every 5 years the Australian Beareau of Statistics releases numbers including the number of different dwelling types and the 2011 results are just out.  So, there's been a bit of hype about increases in strata dwellings (classified as flats, units or apartments) since 2006 and how it reflects a change in Australian housing. 


But the facts are not all that impressive as this extracted table reveals.

Dwelling structure	Australia	%	2006	%
Occupied private dwellings
Separate house	5,864,573	75.6	5,472,527	76.6
Semi-detached, row or terrace house, townhouse etc	765,978	9.9	658,858	9.2
Flat, unit or apartment	1,056,236	13.6	932,862	13.1
Other dwelling	66,666	0.9	76,080	1.1

When you look at it, there's been a less than earth shattering increase in the percentage of occupied flats, units or apartments of 0.5% (or 123,374 more of them).  That works out to a 0.1% shift or 24,674 more per year.  Even if you include some of the increase in semi-detached, terrace or town houses (totalling 0.7% or 107,120 more) it's still not that much.


So, unless there's a lot of empty strata apartments, it sounds like the much quoted transformation of Australian housing from detached housing to medium and high density might not really be happening (or happening as quickly as many people would like).  


The figures mean that the ambitious targets of government urban planning policies of the past have simply not been achieved and casts doubt about the ability to achieve future targets too.  Only a few more people are living in high density each year in Australia.
  
It also makes me think that the complaints of Chris Briem in his Urbanophile post called Misreferencing Misovestimated Population might apply in Australia too.

You can get the full details of the statistics and more Australian Census information here.


Francesco ...