America dethroned! Australia has biggest houses in the world

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legend166

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AUSTRALIANS have the world's largest houses, beating traditional champion the United States, however the cost of renting is similarly expanding.

Data commissioned by CommSec shows the Australian house has grown on average by 10 per cent in the past decade to a record high of 214sq m, three times the size of the average British house.

But a second report from BIS Shrapnel has also forecast rents would continue to spiral with a rise of 5 per cent a year in Brisbane between 2010 and 2012 and similar levels in other capitals.

It was estimated landlords would pocket an extra $2 billion nationally during the period.

According to CommSec, while the houses are getting bigger, so too are the families with the number of people in each household rising from 2.51 to 2.56, the first such rise in at least 100 years.

NSW has the biggest houses in Australia and by a large margin. The size of the average new house built in NSW in 2008-09 was 262.9sq m, followed by Queensland 253sq m.

"The increase in the size of the average family unit may mean that fewer new homes need to be built," CommSec's Craig James said.

"It makes sense. Population is rising, as is the cost of housing and the cost of moving house, so we are making greater use of what we've got.

"Children are living at home longer with parents and more people are opting for shared accommodation."

Had the number of persons per household remained unchanged, CommSec estimates that 166,000 extra homes would needed to have been built in the 2007-08 year.

"If the size of the average household continues to rise, there will be reduced demand for new houses and apartments," Mr James said.

"It is questionable whether Aussie homes can, or indeed should, continue to grow.

"Generation Y is already baulking at the cost of housing, choosing to stay at home longer with parents."

In Europe Denmark has the biggest homes (houses and flats), with an average floor area of 137sq m, followed by Greece (126sq m), and the Netherlands (115.5sq m).

Homes in the UK are the smallest in Europe at 76sq m.
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http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26417502-952,00.html

Eh, this probably isn't a good thing.
 
UraMallas said:
Mansion: Australian for "house."
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Seriously though, I visited a couple of open homes around my area... I still considered them houses despite their 400+ square meter living space.

The one mansion I did visit was 1000 Square meters of living space.

Erm... that would roughly correpsond to 4000 square feet and 10000 square feet respectively.
 
Torhthelm Tídwald said:
Less densely populated countries have larger homes. News at 11.
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Well, yeah.

But then again, something like 70% of the entire population of Australia live in the capital cities. We got a whole lot of land here, but we're not using much of it.
 
legend166 said:
Well, yeah.

But then again, something like 70% of the entire population of Australia live in the capital cities. We got a whole lot of land here, but we're not using much of it.
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Yeah, but even our cap cities are among the least densely populated in the world.
 
Doesn't really surprise me I guess.

Seems like new house are constantly getting larger.

Probably have the most swimming pools per capita also, lol.
 
Wog palaces have slowly been ruining suburban streets for years now. Come to Australia, buy a one story home and then tear it down build a fully sick Mcmansion with columns out the front.
 
user_nat said:
Doesn't really surprise me I guess.

Seems like new house are constantly getting larger.

Probably have the most swimming pools per capita also, lol.
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Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me. All you have to do it look on Google Earth and it seems as though everyone has a swimming pool.
 
Fusebox said:
Wog palaces
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Wog is in the UK usually regarded as an offensive slang word referring to dark skinned, non-white people from Africa or Asia. The origin of the term is uncertain. Many dictionaries say "wog" possibly derives from the Golliwogg, a blackface minstrel doll character from a children's book published in 1895. An alternative is that "wog" originates from Pollywog, a maritime term for someone who has not crossed the equator.
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I am really, really disappointed in you.
 
Fusebox said:
Wog palaces have slowly been ruining suburban streets for years now. Come to Australia, buy a one story home and then tear it down build a fully sick Mcmansion with columns out the front.
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Have they built hell holes like this yet?
cul-de-sac-2.jpg
 
bishoptl said:
I am really, really disappointed in you.
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With all due respect - as an Australian reading that post, I knew from the choice of words that the poster is Australian and I wasn't offended by it. Few Australians are offended by the term, and it is accepted more generally as a cultural term of endearment. Several years ago, a Greek man even made a film here called 'Wog Boy'. Go figure.

edit: seriously, most Australians under the age of 30 don't even know what a Golliwog is, and I honest-to-god have never even heard of that connection.
 
I have never heard the term wog palace in my life, must be an aussi thing. It seems that the term "wog palace" does not have harsh connotations over there:

http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cach...+palace&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=opera

"Wog" in Australia does not have quite the explosive racist connotations it possesses in the UK. Part of the Australian vernacular, it refers to the large number of the country's south European immigrants, including Greeks, Italians, Turks and Serbs. Rather like "nigger" in the US, the term has been reappropriated by the people it was originally directed against.
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Maybe the ban might be a bit harsh.
 
I've had the word directed at me in the UK and Canada. I was well aware of what it meant when I saw it, and it's not kosher.
 
Bleepey said:
I have never heard the term wog palace in my life, must be an aussi thing. It seems that the term "wog palace" does not have harsh connotations over there:

http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cach...+palace&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=opera



Maybe the ban might be a bit harsh.
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From the context, I know the kind of McMansion he’s talking about – they dominate certain suburban streets, especially those streets that are both built along the ridges of hills and near the area’s trendy shops. I do know from experience, however, that Greeks and Italians aren’t even in the majority of the people building them (certainly not in Queensland at least), so it’s unfair to single them out among the hordes of self-important, 4WD-driving, inner-city private-school-educated, cashed-up wankers who do. I’m not the sort of person who uses the word, but bourgeoisie in the way Arts students use it is more apt.

bishoptl said:
I've had the word directed at me in the UK and Canada. I was well aware of what it meant when I saw it, and it's not kosher.
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In Australia, the meaning has nothing at all to do with black people and describes people with a mediterranean background. It's much closer in meaning to the US term "guido", though the slur has lost a lot of its impact over the years.
 
ScientificNinja said:
edit: seriously, most Australians under the age of 30 don't even know what a Golliwog is, and I honest-to-god have never even heard of that connection.
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As a 25 year old Australian, the only Golliwog I know of are the delicious chocolate biscuits that were renamed a couple of years back :lol

FWIW in Austalia the term "wog" is usually associated with Italians.
 
viciouskillersquirrel said:
From the context, I know the kind of McMansion he’s talking about – they dominate certain suburban streets, especially those streets that are both built along the ridges of hills and near the area’s trendy shops. I do know from experience, however, that Greeks and Italians aren’t even in the majority of the people building them (certainly not in Queensland at least), so it’s unfair to single them out among the hordes of self-important, 4WD-driving, inner-city private-school-educated, cashed-up wankers who do. I’m not the sort of person who uses the word, but bourgeoisie in the way Arts students use it is more apt.
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I used to live next to one. And it was built by Italians :p

But yeah, I know what you mean.
 
viciouskillersquirrel said:
In Australia, the meaning has nothing at all to do with black people and describes people with a mediterranean background. It's much closer in meaning to the US term "guido", though the slur has lost a lot of its impact over the years.
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Exactly. It's hardly an offensive word here.
 
ScientificNinja said:
With all due respect - as an Australian reading that post, I knew from the choice of words that the poster is Australian and I wasn't offended by it. Few Australians are offended by the term, and it is accepted more generally as a cultural term of endearment.
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Funny enough, the entire country of Spain defends their racism against the Chinese as "endearment".
 
bishoptl said:
I've had the word directed at me in the UK and Canada. I was well aware of what it meant when I saw it, and it's not kosher.
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Really? Like really? Would you mind telling me about the time in the UK. I'm not doubting you but I haven't heard of that directed at anybody for a long time.
 
ahh yeah, wog doesn't mean black people here in Australia. It is not offensive in the least to anyone who i have met. I was called a skip, and i hung out with wogs some times. I have also heard of a golliwog and they have literally nothing to do with the current meaning of the word 'wog' here in Australia
 
Zaptruder said:
Wait? That's happened already?

Goddamn... Australia... the new America.
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Friend of mine who moved over from the States has always said that Australia is like America.. just 20 years behind.

It's actually quite funny seeing people who hated/harboured a stiff competition with the U.S. all the time and the culture over here slowly morph into that which they disliked in the first place - and these are the ones who are at the forefront of it all. Stupid Australians.
 
bishoptl said:
I've had the word directed at me in the UK and Canada. I was well aware of what it meant when I saw it, and it's not kosher.
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apparently it IS kosher in australia from what i gather from the aus posters
don't see how the UK and Canada matter in this context
 
Holy shit. Australian homes are 3 times larger than homes in the UK. House prices in this country are ridiculous too. That's overpopulation for you.

I know where I'm moving when I graduate.

Is the guys ban a permaban? Another Australian got banned for a few weeks for saying 'jap' in one thread when it's not really offensive in Australia. I didn't know about the use of the word 'wog' in Australia, but it obviously doesn't have the same connotations as it does here, I hope the guy isn't permabanned.
 
SnowWolf said:
Funny enough, the entire country of Spain defends their racism against the Chinese as "endearment".
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu6WE8olBYQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcGEuTyyHC8
http://www.veoh.com/collection/acropolisnow/watch/v1592282zXRmrbMt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCRXjYDqK7U

Thirty to eighty years ago, what you're saying would apply, but the term has been largely co-opted and embraced here, by the Greek community at least. True, they used stereotype-based comedy to do it, but the term has lost much of its edge and doesn't carry all the same negative connotations it once did.

Have no idea on what the situation is like in Spain.
 
Intent is nearly as important as the word itself. If the fellow Aussies are of one mind that it wasn't meant to be offensive, then I'll relent this time. It did seem out of character, hence my disappointment. With that said, there better not be a next time, local colloquialism or no.
 
Seriously, Today Tonight did a story on the word Wog a few years back, they went and asked all the Greeks and Italians and Lebs, and every single person they asked didn't find it offensive. It's just local slang, kinda like New York and Guido I guess.
 
liquid_gears said:
Is the guys ban a permaban? Another Australian got banned for a few weeks for saying 'jap' in one thread when it's not really offensive in Australia. I didn't know about the use of the word 'wog' in Australia, but if it obviously doesn't have the same connotations as it does here, I hope the guy isn't permabanned.
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I'd say if the person of that culture takes offence to it then it should be punished for. There is definitely a higher chance of insulting strangers therefore you have to deal with walking on thin ice before you open your mouth.

Same reason why I'm allowed to get by calling my Aboriginal friends as "Abos" but if a stranger called us that we'd give them hell. But eh, that's how racial slangs work.
 
pseudocaesar said:
Seriously, Today Tonight did a story on the word Wog a few years back, they went and asked all the Greeks and Italians and Lebs, and every single person they asked didn't find it offensive. It's just local slang, kinda like New York and Guido I guess.
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Why were you watching Today Tonight?
 
pseudocaesar said:
Seriously, Today Tonight did a story on the word Wog a few years back, they went and asked all the Greeks and Italians and Lebs, and every single person they asked didn't find it offensive. It's just local slang, kinda like New York and Guido I guess.
Click to expand...

Ah but those dirty Guido bastards are Guidos by choice, at least in modern interpretation.
 
bishoptl said:
Intent is nearly as important as the word itself. If the fellow Aussies are of one mind that it wasn't meant to be offensive, then I'll relent this time. It did seem out of character, hence my disappointment. With that said, there better not be a next time, local colloquialism or no.
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I bow to your superior wisdom :)
 
Makes sense, since we're also the fattest nation in the world now....

http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/australia-now-worlds-fattest-nation-20090407-9xrv.html

Australia - FUCK YEAH! Gotta fit those fat arses somewhere I guess.

liquid_gears said:
Holy shit. Australian homes are 3 times larger than homes in the UK. House prices in this country are ridiculous too. That's overpopulation for you.

I know where I'm moving when I graduate.

Is the guys ban a permaban? Another Australian got banned for a few weeks for saying 'jap' in one thread when it's not really offensive in Australia. I didn't know about the use of the word 'wog' in Australia, but it obviously doesn't have the same connotations as it does here, I hope the guy isn't permabanned.
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My auntie was looking at emigrating a few years ago. We worked out if she sold her small two bedroom terrace in Kent she'd be able to buy a five bedroom place with massive lounge, kitchen, swimming pool, double garage, etc in a decent suburb.

The word Wog is as offensive as the word Pom or Skip. I've been called the latter two plenty of times and never taken offense but the word wog was a lot more offensive 50 years ago.
 
bishoptl said:
Intent is nearly as important as the word itself. If the fellow Aussies are of one mind that it wasn't meant to be offensive, then I'll relent this time. It did seem out of character, hence my disappointment. With that said, there better not be a next time, local colloquialism or no.
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Yeah... but that's just discriminating against us aussies.

Americans get to use all their slang, and aussies get banned over misunderstandings.

Similar to 'wog', 'cunt' here doesn't have as much... or at least didn't have as much of a perjorative harshness as it does in the states; it's like dick.


The statistic that I'd be most interested in is average square meter occupancy per adult though... that would be a better measure of consumption than just house sizes.
 
Then what's wrong with using the term 'Itallian' then if that's what you really mean? Right, that's what I thought Australian assholes. Stop fucking complaining.
 
Because it's a term that encompasses more than italians, more than mediterranians... and significantly easier to say than southern europeans that have immigrated to australia enmasse.

Stupid B!TCH.
 
264qh4n.jpg


Where im at the moment.

Could probly fit another house in the back yard with a comfortable sized yard. A lot of the houses round here are being knocked down and having 6-8 units built on the land.
 
dejay said:
Makes sense, since we're also the fattest nation in the world now....

http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/australia-now-worlds-fattest-nation-20090407-9xrv.html

Australia - FUCK YEAH! Gotta fit those fat arses somewhere I guess.



My auntie was looking at emigrating a few years ago. We worked out if she sold her small two bedroom terrace in Kent she'd be able to buy a five bedroom place with massive lounge, kitchen, swimming pool, double garage, etc in a decent suburb.

The word Wog is as offensive as the word Pom or Skip. I've been called the latter two plenty of times and never taken offense but the word wog was a lot more offensive 50 years ago.
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http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/commerce/091125/obesity-epidemic-fattest-countries This story says we're not even in the top 10 lol.

and agreed wog is not offensive at all in australia.
 
bishoptl said:
Intent is nearly as important as the word itself. If the fellow Aussies are of one mind that it wasn't meant to be offensive, then I'll relent this time. It did seem out of character, hence my disappointment. With that said, there better not be a next time, local colloquialism or no.
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Intent is nearly as important? It's the entire crux of the matter. It will be a fine day when the culture of being offended at specific syllable arrangements dies out.

The idea that one should make reasonable attempts not to offend when communicating is fine. But being offended by words regardless of intent is not reasonable.
 
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