Despite the huge market demand for property, a lot of it is under utilised. There are some very big houses out there. Like up_and_up, I also spent some time living in a large shared house that was more of a community. Central city, a garden with chooks, nine bedrooms, usually twelve or more occupants, shared responsibilities, budget, cooking, etc. We were each spending about the same for rent, food, electricity, gas, phone, and internet combined as others in shared house situations were spending on rent alone.

Our home was a true community hub. We hosted a lot of events. It was a great way to live as a young person. In my opinion it was the cooking roster (you cooked once every two weeks for everyone else in the house) and the fact that we all sat down to a shared meal that made it work. Without that it would probably have devolved from a large family-like situation into something more like a large hostel situation.