A home is now like a social status symbol – the bigger the house the higher up the social ladder you are.
The number of bedrooms per house in Australia jumped from 2.6 to 3.1 between 2001 and 2011, while Australia’s average household size in 2011 was the same 2.6 people as ten years ago.
Housing can no longer be simply regarded as a “place of shelter”, says social researcher Mark McCrindle, who believes the upsize trend is a result of homes becoming status symbols and “multi-generational”.
He said four-bedroom homes were here to stay, and his research had found that for every person downsizing, twice as many were upsizing.
Real estate academic Peter Koulizos said “a home is like a status symbol – the bigger the house the higher up the social ladder you are”.
“The most popular-sized home is three bedrooms but four-bedroom homes won’t become dinosaurs because people will find other uses for them. The five and six bedroom homes will become dinosaurs because we are not having as many kids.”