The Kids Are Ok

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday June 28, 2008

Susan Wellings

Who says you need a quarter-acre block to play cricket?

A fine Saturday afternoon at a strata development in inner Sydney and there's nothing to be heard but the sunny sound of children's laughter. A group of youngsters are splashing about in the swimming pool around which the units and townhouses are clustered. Others are off to the adjacent park.

"It's great to hear them and watch them play their cricket games around the walkways," says Toni Cummins, chairwoman of the owners' corporation at Glebe Gardens. "I think it's a sign of balance to have children in apartments these days and I think the children here live a great life.

"Apartments these days are becoming a lot more child-friendly. We have newborns here up to 15-year-olds. I've seen maybe an 80 per cent increase in the number moving in."

It was once the staunchly held view that Australian kids needed a house on a traditional quarter-acre block in which to happily grow up. Today, more parents and children are moving into apartments. And frequently it's due less to financial necessity than lifestyle choice.

CHILD-FRIENDLY APARTMENTS

Children living in apartments is a trend happening all over Sydney, from the wealthy North Shore to "gun-barrel" blocks in Campsie, from the northern beaches to the eastern suburbs (see box).

Belle Property Mosman principal Tim Foote says he has seen many families moving into apartments so they can live closer to the water, nearer beaches, shops, parks and cinemas.

"They get a lot more for their money and can be close to all amenities - and running around a beach can be better than around a relatively small backyard," he says.

"It's also good [because] people don't have to spend as much time maintaining apartments, so they have more time for their children and if they want to travel with their kids, they just lock up and leave."

Living on one level can also be safer for young children than negotiating house stairs. Some developments share pools and playgrounds.

Often ground-floor units will also have their own courtyards. "We're selling one new development and six of the 19 apartments have courtyards - some two," says Sam Zourkas, principal of LJ Hooker Campsie.

"When you can pick up an apartment with courtyard for $395,000, young families find those options much more affordable. We do have a lot of kids in apartments now."

It's a similar story on the northern beaches. "Here it's almost a necessity for children to live in apartments before they make the step into a house since it's hard to find a child-friendly house for under $1 million," says Toby Hutton, of Raine & Horne, Manly.

"Families with teenage kids often even prefer apartment living."

Vicki Laing, at Laing Real Estate in Elizabeth Bay, says Europeans have been doing it for centuries and now Australians are starting to realise that being in apartments close to the city, with work, parks and facilities right on the doorstep, can be just as great for kids as it might be for their parents.

"It means parents don't spend all their time in the car dropping them off at school and they can walk with them to school, to gardens, to the park and to the beach, as well as to libraries, art galleries and cafes," Laing says. "Nowadays you're dodging the strollers around here and it creates a great feel."

Greg Freeman, chief operating officer of strata company BCS, says children seem to be moving more into apartments with gardens or bigger developments with parkland and recreational facilities.

"European experience suggests that apartment living is appropriate for many families and there's no reason it can't happen here, driven simply by the lack of space."

HIGH-RISE DOWNSIDE?

A study by the University of NSW's city futures research centre found attitudes towards children in units also appear to be softening.

The survey says "battlers" make up 26 per cent of flat dwellers and they have the highest proportion of children. The majority of this group believes strata living is a good environment for children.

Only 36 per cent disagreed with the view that units were a healthy place to bring up kids.

The centre's Professor Bill Randolph says it is plainly an area that needs more research. "The key thing is the age of the children," he says.

"Living in a two-room flat with a baby would be a completely different kettle of fish to living in a big apartment with teenagers."

An earlier paper he wrote, Children In A Compact City, revealed that lower-income families' children might suffer, particularly if parents tended to keep them at home, for instance fearing discrimination on the basis of their ethnicity.

"To date there is little evidence that the idea children might be part of the higher density being planned for Sydney, Melbourne and other Australian cities has been understood by urban planners and developers," he wrote.

At the developers' advocacy group the Property Council of Australia, the residential division's executive director, Caryn Kakas, says there is little evidence to suggest developers are bearing children in mind when designing apartments. "The view among developers is that apartment sizes are continuing to get smaller rather than larger," she says. "The view is that the majority of people moving in are still pre-baby or post-baby groups.

"While there's an increase in developers putting in family-friendly aspects such as pools, open areas and shops, these are designed with empty-nester apartment owners' grandchildren in mind, not their children."

High-rise units also need to be designed to be safer for young children, says Professor Danny Cass, director of trauma at Westmead Children's Hospital.

He has treated a growing number of youngsters with injuries from falls and says windows in children's bedrooms need to be prevented from opening fully.

"If they're not designed that way, anyone with a drill can put in a bolt which means a window can't be opened more than 10 centimetres," he says. "They do it in New York and if we did it here we would see an end to those injuries."

Psychologically, too, apartments can be dangerous for youngsters if their parents don't make an effort to get out often.

Clinical psychologist Dr Bob Murray, co-author of Raising An Optimistic Child, says children need the space to be able to explore their environment for healthy development.

"If parents live in an apartment they need to take their children out for at least 20 minutes a day to an open space," he says. "They just have to try harder."

'THE CITY HAS BECOME OUR BACKYARD'

When clothing business boss Julie Goyen became pregnant at the age of 42, friends assumed she'd soon be looking to move on from her 10th-floor Potts Point apartment.

Instead, she stayed - and found that her child also blossomed on the apartment lifestyle. "We spend a lot of time outside, eating out in cafes and going to parks," she says of herself and daughter Jaymie, 5.

"We enjoy our surroundings and the city has become our backyard. We're also finding that there are more and more children around. It's just different to the lifestyle I grew up [in] with back and front yards."

Goyen says she and partner Kevin Grundy also have more time with no house to upkeep.

"So on a weekend we can all spend quality time together," she says.

"Jaymie absolutely loves it. She's known in all the coffee shops and is very happy."

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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