Why skyscrapers in my hometown don’t bother me

July 10, 2026 — 5:00am

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Visiting my hometown has always been an eye-opener for me. Sydney’s thicket of skyscrapers and high-rise apartments – especially around the city centre – are a sharp contrast to the sparser, quiet suburbs right on the doorstep of Perth’s CBD.

But recently, there’s been a noticeable change in the latter.

Even in some of the inner suburbs of Perth (five minutes’ drive from the CBD) where local councils have – for decades – intensely opposed anything higher than a two-storey building, there are suddenly tall cranes towering and construction tape wrapping around large blocks of land.

My mum and grandma, on recent drives and walks around my childhood neighbourhood, have complained about this development.

Despite my well-aired opinions on housing affordability, and both of them having to chip in to help me buy my own apartment in Sydney, they remain disgruntled by one of the main solutions to the housing shortage in Australia.

To some degree, I get it. Going for runs around the Swan River, across the leafy University of Western Australia campus, and through Kings Park – one of the world’s largest inner-city parks – for example, reminds me how peaceful and rejuvenating it feels to be living in a city with plenty of greenery.

And when large buildings increasingly creep onto this space, there is a sense of loss (perhaps in amenity) that is difficult to put an exact number on, but is felt quite keenly by residents.

More crowding in public spaces, increased noise and worse congestion on roads are also common grounds for opposition by residents, all of which are often reasonable concerns.

At the same time, though, there is still clearly a need for more affordable housing. And simply building more detached homes further away from the city is not an optimal solution.

That’s because building homes where there is no existing infrastructure costs much more than building more of them where there are already power lines, pipes and roads. The........

© The Age