Forum: BBQ madness and deadly plan for stray cats
I think the trendy word for it is “triggering”: a word that will instantly have a normally calm and placid person frothing at the mouth and chewing the carpet. For…
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Podcast: Premiums soar thanks to sins of the past
We admit we can get a little city-centric here at Flat Chat so last weekend it was good to get out of the urban jungle and find out what’s happening…
Why families can be happy in high-rises too
Are apartments appropriate places to bring up families? Might they even be better for you and your kids than a free-standing house, in some ways? While the vast majority of…
Winter warning – don’t let your furbaby burn
Pet owners know only too well that increased affection from your furbaby is a sure sign that the weather is getting colder. These animals become heat-seeking missiles as Autumn turns…
Insurance failures add $16k to cost of NSW flats
It has not been widely reported, but Building Commissioner David Chandler has a big dream for apartments in the state – that one day commercial insurers will return to the…
Forum: Pet misinformation and myths still rule roost
After all the flying fur over the NSW Court of Appeal overturning a blanket pet ban in a Sydney high rise, there has been a fog of misinformation, disinformation and…
With $1.7m one-bedders – you cannot be Sirius
The boxy, brutalist Sirius building is about to be transformed from a pragmatic, utilitarian ugly duckling to a swan worthy of a ballet at the Sydney Opera House, over which…
Sun sets on developer, leaving buyers in the lurch
The Sydney property developer that was the first to fall foul of NSW’s ‘sunset clawbacks’ laws has gone bust – leaving the buyers of its latest apartments, already three years’…
Podcast: Sirius, sunset clawbacks and feral cats
There is no building in Sydney that has polarised opinions more than the Sirius apartments on Circular Quay – unless you include the Opera House, its architectural antithesis across the…
New sustainability strata laws explained in video
A couple of months ago the NSW Government passed a law that made it easier for owners corporations to approve the installation of sustainable infrastructure. The law and its intentions…
Forum: Is it easy to split our strata scheme?
Back in the bad old days of strata, developers would stack unit entitlements on to average-sized apartments, and steer them away from commercial units, like shops, and penthouses. Unit entitlements…
Podcast: Property price panic and dodgy donations
With property prices soaring but houses outstripping apartments, as detailed in this story, we try to make sense of it all. Why is the gap between the cost of houses…