A young Aussie has listed off the reasons new suburbs make him feel ‘sick’ compared to older neighbourhoods.
Matt Van Biljon, 19, compared the differences between the ‘beautiful’ suburbs located closer to Sydney’s CBD and the ‘dystopian sleeping pods’ built in the city’s west.
The teenager claimed each home in the older suburbs were more unique than those in the newer ones.
‘Each house also looks completely different, a lot of these houses are actually heritage sites, meaning it’s against the law to change the outside of them,’ he said in a TikTok.
‘Here at the new suburbs, and we can immediately see each house looks the exact same.’
Mr Van Biljon pointed out there is a distinct lack of plant life in the newer suburbs, such as Quakers Hill, claiming the only sign of greenery were the well maintained lawns at the front.
His main complaint was how closely the homes were built next to each other and how the blocks of houses looked like grids – an unusual layout in Sydney.
‘Urban planning of this kind makes me feel a bit sick,’ Mr Van Biljon said.
Social media users were similarly frustrated by the ‘cookie-cutter’ style housing plans, which isn’t contained to Sydney but is being used ‘-wide’.
‘It’s the lack of any trees that bugs me and there’s not room for any decent sized trees to grow in the future either,’ one wrote.
‘Literally windows facing windows, you could shake hands,’ a second said.
‘Give the streets 20 years and hopefully they’ll look lush but the council needs to make sure they do appropriate street planting now,’ another wrote.
A fourth said it ‘feels all so lifeless’.
Another said the lack of trees in suburbs with mostly black roofs meant there was little to no ‘shade or cooling effect’ and that it made summers more ‘dangerous’.
While the scarcity of plant life has created ‘heat islands’ across the newly developed suburbs, residents told Daily Mail they can’t afford to buy elsewhere.
A number noted they would move closer to the city if they had the opportunity to, but skyrocketing housing costs forced them to the outskirts of the city and into cheaper, mass produced homes.
Surya Durai, 34, is one of the residents of the new Box Hill development in Sydney’s northwest, 48km from the CBD.
Mr Durai took a break from his yardwork on a 33C day to tell Daily Mail that he and his young family have been in the neighbourhood for six months, after buying a 330sqm piece of land and building on it.
Asked where he would rather live, he said, ‘definitely not on this side of the city’.
‘If I can I’ll try and get something closer to the city – maybe a unit, because unit prices are down,’ he said.
Mr Durai, like many residents of Sydney’s outer suburbs, has had to compromise with a long commute, a lack of infrastructure and severe heat, in exchange for more affordable housing.
Winds from the far west bring hot air to western Sydney over summer, without the relief of the sea breezes in the city’s east.
Mr Durai said when the heat gets bad he resorts to running his air conditioning 24 hours a day, and stays in the lower level of his house.
He has a solar panel that he said ‘kind of compensates’ for the high electricity cost.