The Urban Sprawl Myth

Angas Prime regularly assists developers to acquire land suitable for housing subdivisions, as well as providing finance for civil works such as site preparation, water and sewerage connections, guttering and roadworks. With a rapidly expanding population, the demand is strong for new housing developments. Banks are very willing to lend money to home buyers, whereas the non-bank sector such as Angas Prime has a role to play in the commercial space. Angas Prime advances loans for urban development in the major cities and selected regional centres.

In a continent where the urban footprint takes up 0.35% per cent of the land mass, it is surprising that development is sometimes criticised as being "urban sprawl". Many factors are often overlooked. Outer suburban growth has greater density than the established inner suburbs. In fact, Angas Prime often sees deals where an older dwelling on a large block is demolished to make way for three or four two storey townhouses. Despite the greater densities, housing in developing suburbs predominantly comprises of detached houses. Recent studies undertaken in Melbourne, Australia's largest city, indicate that the diagnosed incidence of mental health conditions is two to five times higher in the inner city than greenfield suburbs.

Economists are encouraging the construction of more high rise apartments to meet the Federal Government's housing targets. Home buyers prefer to purchase houses. "Our Home Choices" is a survey undertaken by Infrastructure Victoria. It found that only one in five existing households would trade house and land to live in an established suburb in a medium density home (a townhouse or apartment) - if it was available at a comparable price. Overwhelmingly, residents in the newly developed suburbs like living there. The same survey found that majority of households "strongly prefer" detached houses over apartments. Consequently, Angas Prime is comfortable with a loan portfolio which includes residential land for development.