Victorian property: The Melbourne-Singapore apartment connection

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Singapore was ahead on two key fronts: a focus on development near transit hubs and a significantly simpler and more predictable planning environment.

Rahul Mittal View Profile

Mr Mittal, who is in Melbourne this week for the Urban Development Institute of Australia’s National Congress event, is a big fan of the way Melbourne has made universities a part of their surrounding suburbs and communities.

Melbourne’s bike trails and lanes, as well as pedestrian-friendly streets were also things Singapore could learn from, according to the director, especially the presence of showers and end-of-trip facilities in city office buildings to encourage healthier transit choices.

But Singapore was ahead on two key fronts: a focus on development near transit hubs, something Melbourne is working to address, and a significantly simpler and more predictable planning environment.

“80 per cent of the population in Singapore will live within a 10-minute walk of the rail network stops in the near future,” Mr Mittal said.

“And on the back of that, they do transit-oriented development.”

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The buildings themselves have a lot of amenities for the residents ... so people don’t want to escape their home, and it’s a very pleasant environment to be in.

Rahul Mittal View Profile

Meanwhile, a rising trend of owner-occupier buyers in Melbourne was leading some developers to focus on larger apartments with high-quality features, something that was mandated by the high price of land in Singapore, Mr Mittal said.

“In Singapore, we don’t have the luxury of a lot of landed residences, but because of that the quality of the apartments and the finishes of them are so high,” he said.

“And the buildings themselves have a lot of amenities for the residents … so people don’t want to escape their home, and it’s a very pleasant environment to be in.”

In Melbourne, rooftop gardens, pools and gyms were in the past viewed as a negative by investors who saw them as an owners corporation fees…

This article first appeared in Herald Sun Real Estate. Click here to read the full article.