Should natural light in apartments be more tightly regulated?

This is an important issue of policy because it's probable that tighter regulation would increase the cost of bringing apartments to market; some of that increase would likely be passed on to buyers.

How light enters a bedroom – whether it transits via a light corridor or is borrowed from a living area – really shouldn't be an issue of concern for regulators. It's not as if it's going to get contaminated on the journey past the TV! (2)

All that should matter is whether the amount of natural light that ultimately enters a bedroom is adequate. It should be the residents call whether they're happy with how it actually gets there.

A key failing of the discussion paper is it provides no numbers on how many apartments are thought to lack adequate daylight. I expect there are are some battle axe bedrooms that actually do get reasonable natural light; there'd likely be some reliant on borrowed light that do too. (3)

On the other hand, I know there are some apartments that have a bedroom with a window – and in some cases even a living room – that nevertheless doesn't get much light, perhaps because of a nearby building or a narrow light well e.g. see Living in the CBD: does it have to be this miserable?

It would make a lot more sense to focus the discussion around defining how much light is necessary within apartments before jumping direct to secondary solutions like regulating internal layout. (4)

Health effects

As any minimum daylight requirement would likely have cost implications, any decision should also be informed by a better understanding of the claimed negative health and wellbeing impacts. There's no explanation of these in the discussion paper however; they're just asserted.

I accept the proposition that some minimum exposure to daylight is a general requirement for good health no matter where you live; but that isn't the issue here.

All that's relevant in the context of this debate is whether or not some residents are likely to suffer ill health as a direct consequence of having a bedroom that receives a low level of natural light.

They might get adequate exposure to daylight in myriad other ways e.g. when their away from their apartment or when they're relaxing in their living area. For most residents, bedrooms are places that are mainly used in the evening hours.

I'd really want to see some hard data on the health effects of dark bedrooms before I'd accept the proposition that battle axe or borrowed light bedrooms are a significant enough health threat to warrant further regulation.