Perhaps this is the answer to securing a home in Sydney's increasingly unaffordable market? One Sydney family decided to all live together in a multigenerational housing complex after pooling together their finances and converting two adjoining rundown terraces and adding an apartment.

Architect Andrew Benn, his designer wife Alice Penna and his academic mother Suzanne Benn all live at the same address in Balmain in Sydney's inner west. The home was designed by Andrew, whose architectural plans for the complex were initially rejected by the local council. The house then went on to win an award at the 2014 NSW Institute of Architects Awards.

Constructing a home that suited everyone's needs and allowed privacy was "quite difficult," Andrew told Radio National. "Everyone has a different sense of privacy, and there are a number of us living here, that all had to be considered."

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