Children in Apartments: Implications for the Compact City

Abstract

Apartments are often portrayed as the domain of young singles, couples and ‘empty nesters’. This article focuses on research undertaken in Sydney (Australia) where a disparity exists between identified planning assumptions regarding apartment residents and the actual apartment population. This article presents an innovative analysis of Australian Census data that identifies lower income households with children as a significant sub-sector of the resident apartment population, geographically concentrated in the lower value middle-ring suburbs of Sydney. An examination of one middle-ring urban renewal site (the Sydney Olympic Park site) provides evidence to suggest that new residential developments adjacent to areas dominated by an apartment market with a significant proportion of lower income families with children are themselves likely to see an influx of these households. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for planners and developers, as well as for service provision at a local council level.