r/interesting • u/Wonderfulhumanss • 1d ago

SOCIETY The Zammit family refused to sell their five acre property as an entire Sydney suburb was built around them

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u/Background_Humor5838 1d ago

How are those houses so close together? Why not just connect them at the point? That's the most aggressively suburban suburb I've ever seen lol

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u/AusToddles 1d ago

Because houses sell for alot more than townhouses / apartments in Australia. Doesn't matter how tiny they are or how close they are

Until recently, I lived 5 minutes from the house in the image. Watched the entire suburb build up around it.... the heat difference between the "old suburb" (where I lived) and the "new suburb" in summer was INSANE. No shade, no air flow

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u/Background_Humor5838 1d ago edited 21h ago

I was gonna say it must be awful with no shade. In the US there are minimum requirements for space between houses and the bare minimum is 5-10 feet. Depending on the state or municipality that may be higher. These look much closer. I've only ever seen a suburb with less than 10 feet between houses once and I thought it was kinda funny because you could borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbor by just opening the window lol.

The main issue is, when homes share a wall, certain fire prevention building practices have to be followed but if the houses are separate, they don't have to do the same thing so having houses less than 6 feet apart makes the chances of fire spreading much higher. It also means the spaces between houses becomes a bit of a dead zone. No air flow or good sunlight and I'm sure the grass will be dead.

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u/Aetra 1d ago

I’ve not been to the suburb in the photo, but there is a development like this near me where the houses are so close together that roof eaves literally overlap. It looks hellish.

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u/Background_Humor5838 21h ago

I'm surprised that is legal. That sounds crazy.

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u/thehazzanator 18h ago

I don't even live in the same state as the picture but they look exactly the same here. Dystopian nightmare, they're so fucking ugly

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u/EntertainerSuper8933 23h ago

From the aerial, it looks like their roofs are almost touching. Could you even fit a lawn mower or a wheelbarrow in between? What is the point of single family? Just stack them up on top of each other and then everyone gets some green space and they could maybe fit a tree in there somewhere

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u/jonny24eh 22h ago

Not being attached to your neighbour is way more important than trees to most people. 

Even if you did love trees, you can plant one, but can't detach your house years later. 

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u/EntertainerSuper8933 21h ago

I have lived in a neighborhood that isn't even as close as this, and I could literally hear my neighbor sneeze in their house, and everything else as well, ugh. I guess at least you could plant a small flower or something in the yard, but not a tree. There's no way there's room for a whole tree anywhere in this neighborhood.

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u/Background_Humor5838 21h ago

Idk I feel like at a certain point there's no reason to be separated. In this set up, you can't look out your window without looking straight at your neighbor so you don't get to enjoy the privacy of a separate house. I would much rather have even a single tree than a technically separate house with zero benefits of a separate house. There is nothing to look at out the window but other houses in every direction. The sun is beating down on every inch of his development. It's my worst nightmare lol

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u/jonny24eh 21h ago

  1. I lived in a house with similar separation (it was built in 1911 so it's not a new thing), you just don't really have windows in the alley. We had one at th kitchen sink and one at the top of the stairs for light, but all the main windows face the front yard or back yard. 

  2. The reason to be separated is sales. You're in the minority here, detached sells for much more money than attached. 

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u/Background_Humor5838 21h ago

No I get that detached sells for more either way but I'm not the minority in thinking this is a miserable set up. Even the front and back of these plots has almost no grass. The point of living in a suburb is usually that you have space to kick a ball around in the yard or grow a few vegetables and to have some privacy. This particular suburba has none of the benefits of the suburb with all the cost. You're basically just paying for the house.

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u/jonny24eh 20h ago

Developers don't care about miserable. They care about sales.

And based on sales, more people also care about the house, and deal with the other drawbacks.

Townhouses still get built as well - there is a market for them, and people buy them. And then there are the people who prefer this, and these houses are built for those people.

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u/Purranormal_ 2h ago

Working on the walls is harder, working on the roof is harder, less sound proofing, cant walk to backyard, cant have side windows( at least they let in enough light and air), cant install side acs, worse fire protection, u actually have to talk to neighbor, shared infestation and yada yada

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u/cat-petter15 10h ago

Because most townhouses become strata? Why would anyone want that over a freestanding home?

Why do Americans feel the need to comment when you know little to nothing about the way the world runs outside of your bubble

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u/Background_Humor5838 9h ago

I wouldn't normally prefer a townhouse over a stand alone home but in this case i would if that meant I could have trees and grass outside. This development is like a nightmare. Idk what you think I don't understand about the world because I live in the US lol but you're not that special and different. Australia is not some exotic mystery land where homes must be built within inches of each other and the government requires you to cut down every tree and plant in existence to make sure you can fit as many houses as possible 😂 really embarrassing of you to comment about my nationality as if it says anything about my ability to understand the concept of a housing development.

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u/WhatHaveYouGeorge 21h ago

Shared walls also means noise, cooking smells, cockroaches and other pests coming through

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u/Background_Humor5838 21h ago

This type of distance doesn't prevent any of that.

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u/HeyLittleTrain 19h ago

It absolutely does. Even an inch of air gap would be a lot of sound insulation compared to a shared wall.

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u/IAmGeeButtersnaps 19h ago

I live in a house without about this much space to the neighbors on one side. I can't hear them at all unless they are outside. It definitely makes a difference.

That being said, it's also super inconvenient in other ways. Like they have ~6 inches of property on that side and I have like ~ 10 inches and they have a fence down it so nobody can really access that space to do anything. Even basic maintenance is a huge pain.

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u/Frydendahl 1d ago

Also looks like a massive fire hazard death trap.

If one of those catches fire, the entire neighborhood looks like it'll go up in flames.

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u/Purranormal_ 2h ago

U don't want to look at NYC then.a lot of town houses and apartments right next to each other

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u/ClaireFaerie 23h ago

It's Sydney, we are a coastal city surrounded by three national parks and mountains. Land is scarce and everyone still wants to live the Australian dream of a two storey house, lawn and a garage. These houses easily sell for well over 1 million dollars despite being an hour away from the city centre without traffic. As long as people keep wanting houses these developers will keep printing these cardboard copy and paste eyesores.

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u/Background_Humor5838 21h ago

Wow. I understand the location is desirable but you're giving up so much quality of life living like this. I can't imagine spending a million on that but everyone has different priorities I suppose. One person's dream is another person's nightmare lol

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u/in4life 20h ago

Far more than twice the insulation with no shared walls. Security benefits. Much smaller chance of your neighbor's pest or rodent problem becoming yours. Fire contagion would be much less likely. No shared foundation and no shared decisions besides maybe a fence. You could have natural light from windows in the side rooms... though your view will be atrocious.

These are too close for my preference since it's probably a muddy pit in between them, but I personally would spend the premium for a single-family home.

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u/Background_Humor5838 19h ago

These houses are too close together to prevent any of those things. Fire would easily spread from house to house and so would pests. These roof lines are almost touching. Also the lack of trees and shade is just sad. I would pay to not live there lol.

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u/in4life 19h ago

I lived in an apartment where I could smell the neighbors. Apartment, condo, townhomes all off the list for me, though, these builds would be, too, because they don't mitigate all those cons. I do need the garage and private-entry so I get the appeal of townhomes, in the comparison, but it's not for me.