CBR leads the world in house size - that’s sad

“On a countrywide scale, Australians and Americans have the highest average home size. But zoom in on the capital cities and it's a very different story. Australia stays top with its capital, Canberra, boasting an average 256.3 sqm home, but the average home in the U.S. capital of Washington D.C. is just one-third of this (86.6 sqm), ranking 35th out of the 72 capitals in our study.”

This is nothing to boast about. We should be embarrassed. The January 25 article by BuildWorld made us groan with shame. We’ve had to wait over a month before we could muster enough calm to write about it… yet again.

”Smaller homes have been known to gain value more quickly (with the exception of so-called micro-homes under 37 sqm) - but larger homes are currently driving demand as workers continue to decamp to the home office. And while smaller homes tend to have a higher price tag per square metre, bigger ones cost more to heat and maintain.”

At Light House, our 4 bedroom 2 bathroom family homes typically range from 140 - 180 square metres. We just designed a two-homes-in-one-project in less than 150 square meters.

Size matters if you are serious about sustainability… financial security, health, comfort and climate resilience. Bigger does not equal better.

Want to save money and time spent cleaning, maintaining and paying bills on your home? Then invest in good space efficient design. We’ve been ranting about this for years. Sprawling isn’t good for anyone - its not good for us socially or environmentally. Its one of the reasons we are supporters of Missing Middle Canberra.

What size home did you grow up in? Jenny’s first home as a home(mortgage)-owner, a 108m2 ex-govie in Lyneham, had happily housed a family with two daughters and twin boys for 20 years.

BTW - we think it is great if you have a larger house providing a home to a large number of people - we are all for intergenerational cohousing. We love clever cohousing - see The Village in Rivett as a great example of what is possible.

BTW 2 - the Light House team members practice what we preach.