Battle over density: in Sydney’s east, a rash of developments are housing fewer, richer people

Pem Dechen outside her eastern Sydney home in an eight-unit apartment block. Approval has been granted for it to be demolished and replaced with three luxury homes. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

Sydney property developers are buying blocks of units, knocking them down and replacing them with fewer luxury apartments or homes, a trend that is reducing dwelling numbers amid a statewide housing crisis.

Numerous developments across inner Sydney and the eastern suburbs have been approved, with more in the planning stage. In most cases interwar low-rise apartment buildings will be demolished to make way for “ultra-luxurious” homes for many fewer residents.