4 ‘golden’ Sydney areas where buyers can get 50% bigger new apartments
With apartment costs growing ever higher, astute home buyers can maximise their investment in these essential locations.
Prospective home buyers are discovering the existence of the “golden four” areas of greater Sydney.
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Multistorey apartments in these locations can have up to 50 per cent more square metres of floor space than apartments with the same number of rooms in other parts of the city and state.
Peter Li, managing director of Plus Agency, explained that out of the 33 total council areas in greater Sydney, only the golden four areas of the Hills Shire, Lane Cove, Burwood and Waverley mandate that new apartment units must be larger than the minimum size outlined in the NSW guidelines.
Li advised that buying a unit outside of the golden four areas will likely result in the apartment being near the same size as every other unit with the same number of bedrooms in greater Sydney.
“Across most of Sydney, the regulations stipulate that new studios must be at least 35 square metres, one-bedroom apartments 50 square metres, two-bedroom apartments 70 square metres, and three-bedroom apartments 90 square metres,” Li described.
But when it comes to the Hills Shire, Lane Cove, Burwood and Waverley local governments, “if you buy a new one-bedroom, two-bedroom, or three-bedroom apartment in one of these council areas, it will usually be larger than an equivalent apartment anywhere else in Sydney”.
Within Burwood and Lane Cove, new studio apartments need to be at least 40 square metres, which Li said makes them at least 14 per cent larger than the minimum size found in most council areas.
In Waverley, two-bedroom apartments are required to be 80 square metres – 14 per cent larger than what is necessary in most other parts of Sydney.
The Hills Shire was singled out by Li as the “best of the golden four” in offering the largest one-, two- and three-bedroom units.
Notably, two-bedroom apartments in Castle Hill are required to be 57 per cent larger than most other minimum-sized, two-bedroom apartments available elsewhere in Sydney.
Li cautioned that not every new apartment within the Hills Shire Council would benefit from being a bigger size, but “about two-thirds of the new apartments in any building are”.
He explained that “Hills Shire requires a mix of floor plans in any new multistorey building of flats. About a third of apartments can be the regular size, another third can be around 30 per cent larger than that, and the final third must be 50 to 57 per cent larger”.