A young Australian has listed the reasons why 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 central business district and the “dystopian sleeping pods” built in the city’s west.
The teenager claimed that each house in the older suburbs was more unique than those in the newer ones.
“Each house also looks completely different, many of these houses are actually heritage sites which means it is illegal to change the exterior of them,” he said in a TikTok.
“Here in the new suburbs, we can immediately see that every house looks exactly the same.”
Van Biljon noted that there is a distinct lack of plant life in newer suburbs such as Quakers Hill, and claimed that the only sign of greenery was the well-maintained gardens at the front.
Their main complaint was how close together the houses were and how the blocks of houses looked like grids, an unusual arrangement in Sydney.
“Urban planning of this kind makes me a little sick,” said Mr Van Biljon.
Australian TikTok star Matt Van Biljon (pictured) has revealed the compact, gridded design of new housing projects in western Sydney makes him feel “sick”.
Social media users were equally frustrated by the “chop” style housing plans, which are not limited to Sydney but are used “all over Australia”.
“What bothers me is the lack of trees and there is also no room for decent sized trees to grow in the future,” one wrote.
“Literally, windows in front of windows, they could hold hands,” said a second.
“Give the streets 20 years and hopefully they will look lush, but the council needs to ensure the streets are planted properly now,” wrote another.
A fourth said “everything feels so lifeless.”
Another said the lack of trees in suburbs with mostly black roofs meant there was little or no “shade or cooling effect” and made summers more “dangerous”.
While a shortage of plant life has created “heat islands” in newly developed suburbs, residents told Daily Mail Australia they can’t afford to shop elsewhere.
Some noted that they would move closer to the city if they had the chance, but rising housing costs forced them to move to the outskirts of the city and into cheaper, mass-produced housing.
He added that similarly mass-built homes left the new suburbs with less character than suburbs closer to Sydney’s CBD (file image)
Surya Durai, 34, is one of the residents of the new Box Hill development in Sydney’s northwest, 30 miles from the CBD.
Durai took a break from his garden work on a 33C day to tell Daily Mail Australia that he and his young family have been in the neighborhood for six months, after purchasing a 330 square meter plot of land and building in it.
When asked where he would prefer to live, he said, “definitely not on this side of town.”
“If I can, I’ll try to get something closer to the city, maybe a unit, because unit prices have gone down,” he said.
Durai, like many residents of Sydney’s outer suburbs, has had to make trade-offs with long commutes, lack of infrastructure and extreme heat, in exchange for more affordable housing.
Far westerly winds bring warm air to the west of Sydney during the summer, without the relief of sea breezes in the east of the city.
Durai said when the heat gets worse he resorts to running the air conditioner 24 hours a day and stays on the lower level of his house.
It has a solar panel that, according to him, “somewhat offsets” the high cost of electricity.