ABSTRACT
Over the second half the 20th century Australia emerged as a home owning nation with much of that home ownership occurring within a suburban setting dominated by free title land holdings (see Chapters 9 and 10). However, as Randolph (2006: 474) notes, since the turn of the 21st century this freehold ‘suburban option [has become] increasingly curtailed’. Australians are increasingly ‘expected to spend substantial proportions of their lives in a form of housing that hitherto has only been a minority choice’. One such form is ‘strata titled’ housing. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2011) data reveals that in Australia one in four people live or own strata titled property in its various forms (units, flats, apartments, gated and master planned communities or commercial property). The growing dominance of ‘strata titled’ living is attributed in part to the increased prevalence of ‘urban consolidation’ agendas in the contemporary planning of Australia’s cities and regions (Easthope and Randolph 2008) which results in higher density living.
