Podcasts: Your top ten pods of the year
It’s all very well to be gallivanting around the Scottish Highlands, hiking from B&B to B&B (traditional ones, not Airbnbs) but it’s not exactly conducive to recording a podcast. We…
Strata Defects
They range from minor issues with finishes to major structural and fire safety problems – and when repairs are rwuired , the buck stops with the owners. Hers are hundreds of posts that track the failures of the past and the current efforts to create a less defective future.
Off-the-plan purchases back on the shopping list
Off -the-plan apartment purchases are very much back in favour with investors, writes Sue Williams in Prestige Domain magazine. And NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler’s efforts to clean up the…
Tweaks and leaks: advice on keeping the block nice
When we’re pouring money into renovating our homes, no doubt hoping to increase their value if we ever sell, we often forget the old maxim for the potential property purchaser…
Focus on defects and disasters, pocket $100
Want to add to academics’ collective knowledge about living in strata and all the … um .. challenges it presents, and score a couple of $50 vouchers for doing so?…
Commish hands out gold stars, extends contract
Building Commissioner David Chandler is about to start handing out gold stars to the most reliable developers in NSW. And he has announced that he has extended his contract with…
Heat on planners and pollies as cities swelter
Poor building standards and soaring energy costs are forcing one in three Australians out of their flats and houses and into air-conditioned shopping centres and community facilities during heat waves.…
Waterproofing worries tackled in webinar
The devastating rains of the past few weeks have wreaked havoc in the Northern Rivers area of NSW, as well as S.E. Queensland. Here in Strataland, they will also doubtless…
Mascot Tower residents’ assistance to end in June
The NSW Government has agreed to extend the rental assistance package to Mascot Towers resident owners up to the end of June this year. Residents were forced to abandon their…
Podcast: Strata’s next big challenge – ageing blocks
This week’s podcast is given over to one topic – but it’s a fascinating one: What are we going to do about Australia’s older apartment blocks? Sure, there’s been a…
Forum: Are two-lot strata schemes too much hassle?
We tend not to hear too much about the mysteries two-lot strata schemes like duplexes and villas. Is “mysteries” over-stating it? For a long time Randwick Council in Sydney’s East…
Concern as 50,000 unit blocks reach use-by dates
Between Mascot Towers and the Opal building, and more recently Vicinity in inner-West Sydney, the high-profile problems at various Sydney apartment blocks has drawn our attention to the quality of…
Forum: Something fishy going on down by the pool
One of the reasons I love this job is that, even though we are often asking and answering variations on the same questions, almost every week I get a query…