Very interesting, Ben. I wonder if the urban boom in commercial construction, wave of energy transition construction and recent surge in AI / data center investment has drawn laborers from the residential construction field? In NYC and other large/mid cities, there are armies of construction people making stuff that was spurred by low rates 3-4 yrs ago and fiscal stimulus from 23-24. Resi builders may have to pay up for this labor.
I don't think immigrants who are in this country legally are the concern. Reputable employers check an employee status before they hire. It is the huge number of violent, murderous illegal gang member immigrants who have arrived over the last 4 years who are being deported at this time. I doubt any of them are looking for jobs in construction or elsewhere.
Consider that the average house in the UK is 60 square meters and that the flood of 3*2 houses produced in the USA and Australia after WW2 were about 70 square metres in area.
The state of California in 2016 mandated that an accessory dwelling unit of about this size would henceforth be permitted on any lot capable of accommodating it regardless of the attitude of local planning authorities.
An ADU is an affordable home manufactured under a roof and transported to site that employs less skilled labour in a safer workplace with all the advantages that can accrue from mass production and repetition, as in the car industry. A carpenter now measures twice and cuts 100 to 1000 times. Rooms are square. Walls are vertical.
ADUs take advantage of existing infrastructure like roads, water supply and sewerage. This is a very cheap way to increase the supply of rental housing.
The ADU industry in California has grown fast. 1100 permits were issued in 2016. By 2022, twenty three thousand permits were issued. This is expected to double in 2025. In just eight years the output is 42 times larger. Currently one in seven installations in California is an ADU.
With innovative design, material selection and improved affordability ADUs are also being chosen as the primary residence. The Californian industry is now providing ADUs in states yet to open the floodgates for accessory dwelling units.
Every state in Australia has now adopted this approach to increase the supply of smaller affordable homes.
Prefabricated housing currently accounts for a tiny fraction of houses permitted in Western Australia where I am located. In Germany its 10%, Japan 15% and in Scandinavia 25%.
From April 2024 my state government has mandated a state-wide approach to permitting ADUs. Ancillary dwellings are now a P (permitted) use on any location that can accommodate a dwelling. The dwelling can be up to 70 square metres in area. Furthermore, it appears that hosted short term accommodation will be exempt from the bushfire regulations.
The planners in the district where I live are trying to stop this development. They tend to be tree huggers who deny the exemption to the state-wide ban on clearing native vegetation that applies to home construction. They employ the bush fire regulations to the same effect. They don't want extra dwellings in areas zoned for rural residential and rural use. They seek to consolidate tourist accommodation close to the CBD. Its going to take a cultural change or a lot of political pressure to change attitudes in the Town Planning profession. And this despite a current rate of increase in home prices of 20% per annum and the steepest mortgage rates since 2012, courtesy of the US Fed.
Local authorities that are in charge of town planning are complaints based organizations that reflect the interests of established landowners, the NIMBY element. There is no limit on the inhumanity of man to man. Selfishness abounds. Compare this to the attitude of the Chinese developers of 'Deep Seek' that is openly shared. However I am unable to access it because of malicious attacks on their service providers. I wonder if Silicon valley is involved or the Australian government is simply toeing the party line as they did with Huawei at the behest of Washington.
I prepared this statement for the annual electors meeting for our local government to take place tomorrow. I have been fighting for permission to locate 56 square metre dwellings based on open top sea containers on my 50 acre rural property for four years. I make them myself, another no-no.
Very interesting, Ben. I wonder if the urban boom in commercial construction, wave of energy transition construction and recent surge in AI / data center investment has drawn laborers from the residential construction field? In NYC and other large/mid cities, there are armies of construction people making stuff that was spurred by low rates 3-4 yrs ago and fiscal stimulus from 23-24. Resi builders may have to pay up for this labor.
I don't think immigrants who are in this country legally are the concern. Reputable employers check an employee status before they hire. It is the huge number of violent, murderous illegal gang member immigrants who have arrived over the last 4 years who are being deported at this time. I doubt any of them are looking for jobs in construction or elsewhere.
Consider that the average house in the UK is 60 square meters and that the flood of 3*2 houses produced in the USA and Australia after WW2 were about 70 square metres in area.
The state of California in 2016 mandated that an accessory dwelling unit of about this size would henceforth be permitted on any lot capable of accommodating it regardless of the attitude of local planning authorities.
An ADU is an affordable home manufactured under a roof and transported to site that employs less skilled labour in a safer workplace with all the advantages that can accrue from mass production and repetition, as in the car industry. A carpenter now measures twice and cuts 100 to 1000 times. Rooms are square. Walls are vertical.
ADUs take advantage of existing infrastructure like roads, water supply and sewerage. This is a very cheap way to increase the supply of rental housing.
The ADU industry in California has grown fast. 1100 permits were issued in 2016. By 2022, twenty three thousand permits were issued. This is expected to double in 2025. In just eight years the output is 42 times larger. Currently one in seven installations in California is an ADU.
With innovative design, material selection and improved affordability ADUs are also being chosen as the primary residence. The Californian industry is now providing ADUs in states yet to open the floodgates for accessory dwelling units.
Every state in Australia has now adopted this approach to increase the supply of smaller affordable homes.
Prefabricated housing currently accounts for a tiny fraction of houses permitted in Western Australia where I am located. In Germany its 10%, Japan 15% and in Scandinavia 25%.
From April 2024 my state government has mandated a state-wide approach to permitting ADUs. Ancillary dwellings are now a P (permitted) use on any location that can accommodate a dwelling. The dwelling can be up to 70 square metres in area. Furthermore, it appears that hosted short term accommodation will be exempt from the bushfire regulations.
The planners in the district where I live are trying to stop this development. They tend to be tree huggers who deny the exemption to the state-wide ban on clearing native vegetation that applies to home construction. They employ the bush fire regulations to the same effect. They don't want extra dwellings in areas zoned for rural residential and rural use. They seek to consolidate tourist accommodation close to the CBD. Its going to take a cultural change or a lot of political pressure to change attitudes in the Town Planning profession. And this despite a current rate of increase in home prices of 20% per annum and the steepest mortgage rates since 2012, courtesy of the US Fed.
Local authorities that are in charge of town planning are complaints based organizations that reflect the interests of established landowners, the NIMBY element. There is no limit on the inhumanity of man to man. Selfishness abounds. Compare this to the attitude of the Chinese developers of 'Deep Seek' that is openly shared. However I am unable to access it because of malicious attacks on their service providers. I wonder if Silicon valley is involved or the Australian government is simply toeing the party line as they did with Huawei at the behest of Washington.
I prepared this statement for the annual electors meeting for our local government to take place tomorrow. I have been fighting for permission to locate 56 square metre dwellings based on open top sea containers on my 50 acre rural property for four years. I make them myself, another no-no.