From McMansions to higher density: Sydney’s Hills District quietly carving out a new identity
Eight years ago, Vash Rao, 30, bought a block of land on the border of the Hills Shire and Blacktown to start building the perfect family home.
Then it was an area being shaped out of “fields and cows”. Families were rushing to Sydney’s north-west in search of the suburban idyll and soon McMansions dominated the landscape.
Almost every home in the area was a three or four-bedroom open-plan house along a quiet cul-de-sac.
Kellyville has changed dramatically over time. Photo: Nearmap
But while Sydney’s Hills District has been synonymous with the Great Australian Dream – life in the suburbs with a large backyard and Hills Hoist – it is quietly carving out a new identity.
Five years ago, in nearby Rouse Hill, 90 per cent of homes were houses. Today, it’s 60 per cent, census data shows. Houses in these suburbs regularly sell for Sydney’s median $1.15 million, while five years ago the prices were below $700,000.
Signs of change came as early as the opening of Rouse Hill Town Centre in 2008. At the time, there were plans for mixed-use apartments, but not all the locals were sold on the idea.
“When they first put apartments in Rouse Hill, I didn’t know why anyone would want to live above a village,” Vash said.
But he has embraced the change and now owns seven investment properties across the north-west and western suburbs – including an apartment in Kellyville and two small blocks of land in Rouse Hill.
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This trend towards medium to high-density housing and away from large two-storey homes is also occurring in suburbs along the Blacktown-Hills Shire boundary – which are next to the upcoming rail line.
Five years ago in The Ponds, a relatively new suburb, almost every home was a house, but as of 2016 this had dropped to about two-thirds as the population quadrupled to 12,000.
Even more established areas are showing a shift towards higher densities.
Neighbours in suburbs like Castle Hill have grouped together to sell “megalots” to developers, or swaths of freestanding houses that can be bulldozed and turned into townhouses or apartments.
House Search Australia buyer’s agent Jacque Parker expects Castle Hill – which is 75 per cent houses – to look more like Parramatta, Chatswood or Hornsby in years to come.
Bella Vista and the Norwest area is likely to be, “dominated by higher rise buildings, both business and residential”, she said.
But while the number of medium-density dwellings has risen, particularly in newly developed areas, it’s still families with children who want to make the area home.
For this reason, Hills Shire Council mayor Yvonne Keane has been watching the change in housing carefully.
“Currently, we are under immense pressure to approve one-bedroom studios and units at the minimum size, but our census information shows that we are predominantly a family region and forecasts tell us that this is not about to change in the future,” she said.
Forecasts provided by the council show more than 37,900 new households are expected to make The Hills home in the next 20 years – and at least 62 per cent of them are expected to be families.
Many of the new housing estates shaking up the McMansion reputation are yet to be built with medium-density development sites still being sold in areas such as Rouse Hill, First National Hills Direct sales agent Sanjeev Kumar said.
“Developers prefer the small lot subdivision, townhouse and apartment-style dwellings over the mansion style lots because there are more buyers than can afford them,” he said.
National Property Buyers state manager for NSW Simone Luxford bought a townhouse for a young family in Kellyville in May, saying there was a clear trend to younger buyers being priced out of the traditional quarter-acre block market.
“They don’t quite have the budget for a McMansion but they will get better value for their money in this area,” she said.
This phenomenon isn’t just in the north-west – of course, buyers are facing higher prices for smaller properties across Sydney.
In 2016, the average block of land sold was $171,150 more expensive and 100 square metres smaller than five years earlier, research from the Urban Development Institute of Australia found.
Australian Institute of Architects NSW chapter president Andrew Nimmo said he was “a little dismayed” that there was still a push for detached housing in new estates.
“We shouldn’t be building just single detached houses in greenfield developments anymore, there should be high and medium-density,” he said.
In existing suburbs, which includes much of the Hills District, any change towards higher densities will be a much slower process, as it’s “more difficult to retrofit existing suburbs”.
