What Percentage of People Live in What Percentage of Dwellings?

Suburb to profile: Blacktown
Source of data: 2006 ABS Census

	Dwellings		Persons
Separate house	72,112	84.24%	225,739	87.02%
Semi-detached, terrace house, townhouse etc. with:
One storey	4,323	5.05%	11,618	4.48%
Two or more storeys	4,752	5.55%	13,375	5.16%
Total	9,075	10.60%	24,993	9.63%
Flat, unit or apartment:
In a one or two storey block	1,206	1.41%	1,778	0.69%
In a three storey block	1,362	1.59%	2,971	1.15%
In a four or more storey block	1,096	1.28%	2,614	1.01%
Attached to a house	86	0.10%	171	0.07%
Total	3,750	4.38%	7,534	2.90%
Other dwelling:
Caravan, cabin, houseboat	539	0.63%	839	0.32%
Improvised home, tent, sleepers out	19	0.02%	38	0.01%
House or flat attached to a shop, office, etc.	85	0.10%	210	0.08%
Total	643	0.75%	1,087	0.42%
Dwelling structure not stated	24	0.03%	59	0.02%
Total	85,604		259,412

The above does not tells us the exact percentage for today's population.

However, given that it indicates a vast majority of people (+84%) live in a detached house, one needs to question the value of purchasing an Apartment as an investment in Blacktown.

What sort of demand would there be for an Apartment in Blacktown?

To add further cause for concern regarding the demand for Apartments in Blacktown, consider the following table which tells us the Housing Loan Payment (monthly) per Dwelling Strucutre:

		Semi-detached,			Dwelling
		row or terrace house,	Flat, unit		structure
	Separate house	townhouse etc.	or apartment	Other dwelling	not stated	Total
$1-$249	488	36	3	3	0	530
$250-$399	445	31	13	0	0	489
$400-$549	911	72	19	0	0	1,002
$550-$749	1,322	105	22	3	0	1,452
$750-$949	1,838	173	32	4	0	2,047
$950-$1,199	2,934	227	59	5	3	3,228
$1,200-$1,399	2,802	234	55	5	0	3,096
$1,400-$1,599	2,570	250	47	3	0	2,870
$1,600-$1,999	5,551	551	72	5	0	6,179
$2,000-$2,999	8,740	658	42	6	3	9,449
$3,000 and over	2,552	127	15	3	3	2,700
Housing loan repayment not stated	2,289	163	31	4	3	2,490
Total	32,442	2,627	410	41	12	35,532

* Includes dwellings 'Being purchased under a rent/buy scheme'. Excludes 'Visitors only' and 'Other not classifiable' households.


This table tells us:

Only 1.15% (410/35,532) of Dwellings that were currently being purchased were a Flat, Unit or Apartment!

Sample Size

One should also take into account however that this survey was conducted for the entire city of Blacktown (C) (Local Government Area)


=> the above figures make sense since apartment buildings would probably only be found in the CBD of Blacktown.

Parramatta Comparison

To put this data in perspective, have a look at the same census for Parramatta in 2006:

Dwellings Persons Separate house 29,453 57.52% 88,749 64.60% Semi-detached, row or terrace house, townhouse etc. with:     One storey 2,831 5.53% 6,338 4.61%     Two or more storeys 3,548 6.93% 9,952 7.24%     Total 6,379 12.46% 16,290 11.86% Flat, unit or apartment:     In a one or two storey block 4,412 8.62% 8,251 6.01%     In a three storey block 6,323 12.35% 14,030 10.21%     In a four or more storey block 4,215 8.23% 9,132 6.65%     Attached to a house 81 0.16% 157 0.11%     Total 15,031 29.35% 31,570 22.98% Other dwelling:     Caravan, cabin, houseboat 3 0.01% 21 0.02%     Improvised home, tent, sleepers out 78 0.15% 81 0.06%     House or flat attached to a shop, office, etc. 107 0.21% 265 0.19%     Total 188 0.37% 367 0.27% Dwelling structure not stated 156 0.30% 410 0.30% Total 51,207 100.00% 137,386 100.00%

This shows us that in the same period (albeit, 5 years ago as of the date of writing), Paramatta had almost 30% of its population in "Flat, unit or apartment" dwellings compared to just 4.38% in Blacktown!






But is this still the case???

More importantly, how do we measure the current demand for Apartments in Blacktown???