The Age & SMH: Housing with benefits – why cohousing could be the new Australian dream

Our project Brougham Street Cohousing in Eltham has made the pages of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Alice Uribe and Caroline Zielinski ask whether co-housing could become a mainstream Australian way of living, and our tenth group build is the lead case study.

The story follows some of the members of this collective, from a couple in their 70s who wanted to share a garden and live in a smaller home, to a young mother of three who joined the intergenerational community with a shared vision: no fences, no individual driveways, shared cooking, and neighbours of all ages.

It also covers our challenges with planning permission. The project went to VCAT, and the Tribunal ruled in the collective’s favour in just over a week.

It described the project as “an exemplar of an innovative approach” to the housing crisis.

Tim Riley explains what that experience means for future groups, and how Victoria’s new Great Design Fast Track might change things.

The article also steps back to look at the wider picture.

It covers what researchers say is driving interest in co-housing, why the quarter-acre block still dominates Australian development, how many co-housing projects have been completed nationally, and what happened to a Sydney group that tried the same path.

Click here to read the article. 

Interested in a home at Brougham Street, or in starting a group of your own? Get in touch.