“Access to affordable and ideally sustainable housing is a vitally important social sustainability/equity issue. Yet housing in WA continues to be expensive and mostly of unsustainable design.”

Part I

Introduction

The world economic forum (2013) accessed 148 countries for sustainable housing. Among which Australia is one such country which was ranked 128th among 148 nations for the poor housing administration. There is a large scarcity of housing that is low cost to low income households in Australia. According to Wulff et al. (2009, 2011), analysing the fee and availability of private apartment housing, have estimated that there is a shortfall of almost 300 zero private apartment dwellings that are cheap and reachable to those on the lowest 40 per cent of family incomes. The capital of Western Australia; Perth, is one of the largest growing population areas in Australia. Perth alone in Western Australia is anticipated to encounter the most astounding rate development (187%) of Australia’s capital urban areas, expanding from 1.9 million individuals at 30 June 2012 to 5.5 million out of 2061 (“3222.0 – Population Projections, Australia, 2012 (Base) To 2101” 2013) which is inclined to hike the peak for housing through this rate as the population is tremendously accelerating introducing severity in the housing sector in Western Australia. This brings in the concern for social sustainability in recognizing the housing practice for the flexible residency that the people would reside with a very little to uptake the consumption through a very surplus and rise in the demand for housing. This leads for an observation for the state’s housing committee to take on the challenge that is currently moving with the scale to deem towards sustainable and an affordable housing in Western Australia. This essay argues ecological and socially sound community-based housing qualities in western Australia, with a view to finding the issue that is hindering the efforts and what may furthermore, in addition encourage the uptake of sustainable and low-priced housing layout.

Problem of Unsustainable housing in Western Australia

With the new migration policy in Western Australia, more people continue to flood into Western Australia, more and more pressure is being put on the services and facilities are expected for the city to offer. It is a massive challenge for small cities like Perth with expected for the city to offer and this includes housing as a part of it. The capital city in Western Australia; for example, Perth, are becoming more and more popular as it tends in expanding rapidly. It needs to reduce its footprint. The regularization are to be improvised and the desires are to be reviewed on how much resources that it presently is consuming; the energy, the water, the mineral at the same time as improving the liveability (Medlan, 2013)For this, it is crucial that an alternative solution is brought in for sustainable ways of the future that are not nearly as dependent on extracting resources and producing more and more waste.

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Through the past decade, Western Australian state has faced severed problems of housing. Some of the main problems faced in Perth were like to be related with affordability. Perth’s housing market has rocketed drastically that the low-income people; these includes young, single people, household with children, private renters, purchasers, working households and households in the metropolitan areas that face tremendously difficult to afford a general accommodation (Yates et al. 2007). This has a trend in developing a housing stress to such families. Another such problem underlines poverty that the people in western Australia is suffering. The greater population in WA is either working a short term or on a casual labour hire. The more they work, the more pay they tends to receive. When buying a property, the market provides the home buyer more amount of money than they generally could afford to pay back in return, leaving the properties even more unaffordable for the buyers. Decrease in the value of property is another such reason. The closer that one comes in the metro regions of WA, the more facilities they get. Transportation is one of the main factors. There are places in Perth such as Tuart Hill where there are only limited number of transportations which forces people to boycott such areas despite the lower value.

The importance of efficient and effective planning processes in Western Australian state has a very high influence that they tend to have on improving housing affordability. However, records indicate that the settlement across the states have been worked out in a very unplanned manner causing many people to gain a proper access to a proper housing making them to lose their houses and forced to become homeless. Arnold (2008) describes the poor interaction of various process that land delivers where the issue is the complexity of the process of the planning approval.

Waste management of the housing in Western Australia is another issue for sustainable housing. According to the ABC (2013), it is estimated that yearly $8 billion worth of edible food go to the bin each year; this is with the tremendous increase with the population in Western Australia. With the growth of population, more and more energy is also consumed, this also increases the higher tax imposed on the housing sector and the energy that every house hold consumes making housing in Western Australia continuing to be expensive and mostly unsustainable. On the verge of this, the existing properties in WA are exposed to the risk of crashing which is mainly due to the explosion of population growth. Additionally, there are home owners at Perth, with 66% of properties claimed by property holders and around half of these homes without a home loan against them; these are either vacant or leased to a tenant on a very high price.

Accessible housing and sustainable housing development are major challenges worldwide, and this includes Australia as well. Generally speaking, there is a conflict between sustainable development approach and affordable housing (Karuppannan et al., 2009). However, an affordable and a sustainable housing in Western Australia could only be achieved when there are proper planning and policy that is carried out through the state’s government that would reduce the cost of houses and the rents by providing the housing areas in an accessible public transport, infrastructure and community facilities with the integration of solar energy. Additionally, there is a need to provide community facility, pedestrian friendly walking space, eco-friendly and efficient houses and so on which are very common for sustainable and an affordable housing (Karuppannan et al., 2009). It is also necessary for the state and the local government to provide a stable employment opportunity for the people of Western Australia which can lead them to afford and occupy a sustainable housing bring them to a stress free environment. Not only limited to housing it will provide the people a good quality of life, uplifting them from poverty. This makes them stress free which is also an another indicator of sustainable development goals (UNDP, 2019). A good housing policy also strengthen the housing sector of Western Australian citizens. This has a power to reform the cities and provides a sustainable approach which is also inter-linked to achieving the sustainable development goals for 2030. All of the problems are interconnected to each other. When one problem is solved, the other tends to be solved in a systematic order. This is the system where these factors interact and influence each other, as well as they influence the overall problem for sustainable housing.

Conclusion

The issues that would assist to pave the manner for the citizens in Perth to without a doubt have an efficient and a sustainable low-cost housing but until the strength efficiency rating tool for residential houses virtually charges the electricity performance of the house instead of its thermal properties when the excessive air conditioner is yet included in the process. Moreover, the transport network made via the government does prioritise closer to the non-public motor vehicle in preference to human beings. This cannot be accomplished till the tax system stops rewarding traders instead of buyers because the layout for sustainable housing in Western Australia cannot be achieved until the proper set of housing policies in respect to the affordability for the general public are improvised.

Part II

Sustainable housing design includes optimising solar access, maximising energy efficiency, conserving water and choosing environmentally friendly building products. Houses designed and built according to sustainable design principles can save energy, water and money while being naturally comfortable to occupy. In this same very context, several alternatives on the housing projects have risen tremendously on a global perspective. Yet a much more of an investment of research is falling behind in the state of Western Australia. Some small scale example have been set in the far across to the south of Perth which has turned to a success. For example, the solar operated wind mill at Denmark located to the very end of the Western Australian state. The main goal of the sustainable housing is to increase the number of sustainable and an affordable housing in the private sector of Western Australia for great practice to progressively support housing to the private sustainable and affordable housing plan. The sustainable housing project in Western Australia is likely to provide homes for the first home buyers and homeless people creating hundreds of job opportunity on construction site enabling and encouraging the local resident to get involved in the income generating activities. This will provide them in paying the bills for food, housing and other utilities. Overall, the sustainable housing will enable people to access an affordable housing.

In-order to achieve this, the government must be directly be involved as this includes a vital step for decreasing the higher number of taxes that is imposed on the housing industry. Through the sustainable and affording housing approaches, the cities tend to be sustainable and is also one of the main agendas for 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (“Goal 11: Sustainable Cities And Communities | UNDP” 2019). Despite the fact, that the Government is involved, a very strong leadership is needed in-order to bring in the investors and builders for the sustainable housing project as they remain vital on the economic perspective while the government is involved in the policy formation and the buyers and the local residents would be the stakeholder. Affordability should therefore be considered over the life span of the home.

Western Australia desperately needs more and more better and significant approaches to build houses. Presently, builders and engineers are adapting to bring circumstances with a basic supportable and higher quality private structure plans and materials. Despite all of these continuous hard-work, efforts and creativity, there tends some hindrances that come in building the sustainable housing. The barriers in accomplishing the sustainable housing include the absence of a common vision of economic and sustainable housing, insufficient structure guidelines and non‐compliance with existing guidelines, constrained learning and aptitude in green structure strategies, an inability to perceive the requirement for social recovery and restricted assets, negative impression of higher thickness housing strategy, low quality plans, negative frames of mind to social mix, an importance on bringing down the old structures (Winston 2010).

Guy and Farmer (2000) have built up a social design for looking at the presumptions, values and standardizing responsibilities engaged with the procedure of structure. The specifics of the research strategies need to be developed, there has not yet been a substantial opportunity to conduct primary research data and test the responsiveness of each stream to developments which underlines and justifies the huge sustainability of affordable and sustainable housing here at Western Australia.There are range of different ways that this project can achieve the goal of the sustainable housing project. One such is bringing public transportation to accessibility. The housing approach should be designed in such an orderly manner that its infrastructure should be accessible to all, however, much as could reasonably be expected without exceptional arrangements and in spite of difference in dimension of working, to the point where differently abled individual are provided with extra support (Crabtree and Hes, 2009). This has a possibility of decreasing the privately owned car and gear up with the easy and a frequent access of public transportation; both environment and individual equally benefitted. The public transport is primarily focused on the city areas. On the out skirt of the cities, public transportation is extremely limited, and, in some cases, it may not be an option as well (Curtis 2011). Through the new affordable housing structure that are designed to overcome such problems, a proper and a vigorous planning with the government and transport operators are prior to be discussed which enables and informs the residents and the public choices between scenarios for future change to Perth and Western Australia as a whole and through this model of sustainable housing practice providing both ecological and socially sound community that tends on meeting the Sustainable Development Goal for 2030 agenda. As for the project such as this, huge research needs to be carried out.

References:

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“3222.0 – Population Projections, Australia, 2012 (Base) To 2101”. 2013. Abs.Gov.Au. https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/3222.0Main%20Features112012%20(base)%20to%202101?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3222.0&issue=2012%20(base)%20to%202101&num=&view=.

Medlen, Pamela. 2013. “Smart Thinking Needed As Perth And Its Issues Expand”. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-13/the-city-is-expanding-as-do-its-problems/4685632.

Yates, Judith, Vivienne Milligan, Mike Berry, Terry Burke, Michelle Gabriel, Peter Phibbs, Simon Pinnegar, and Bill Randolph. 2007. “Housing Affordability: A 21St Century Problem”. National Research Venture 3: Housing Affordability For Lower Income Australians. Sydney: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. https://www.ahuri.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/2178/AHURI_Final_Report_No105_Housing_aff

Mrs A Arnold, Committee Hansard, 8 April 2008, p. 38.

ABC. 2013. “Do Australians Waste $8 Billion Worth Of Edible Food Each Year?”. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-08/food-waste-value-australia/4993930.

Karuppannan, Sadasivam & Sivam, Alpana. (2009). Sustainable Development and Housing Affordability.

“Sustainable Development Goals | UNDP”. 2019. UNDP. https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html.

“Goal 11: Sustainable Cities And Communities | UNDP”. 2019. UNDP. https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-11-sustainable-cities-and-communities.html.

Crabtree, Louise, and Dominique Hes. 2009. “Sustainability Uptake In Housing In Metropolitan Australia: An Institutional Problem, Not A Technological One”. Housing Studies 24 (2): 203-224. doi:10.1080/02673030802704337.

Winston, Nessa. 2010. “Regeneration For Sustainable Communities? Barriers To Implementing Sustainable Housing In Urban Areas”. Sustainable Development 18 (6): 319-330. doi:10.1002/sd.399.

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greebuildings and ethics. Ethics and the Built Environment. (ed.) W. Fox. London and

New York, Routledge

Guy, S. and Farmer, G. (2000). Contested constructions: the competing logics of

greebuildings and ethics. Ethics and the Built Environment. (ed.) W. Fox. London and

New York, Routledge