Airbnb and the battle for your blocks
In an exclusive five-part series Jimmy Thomson examines spectacular growth of short-stay letting in our cities’ most popular areas and the affect that has on rents, house prices and, especially,…
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Queensland closer to adopting forced sales laws
Queensland unit owners could soon join their counterparts in NSW in being forced to sell their homes against their will if 75 percent of the neighbours in their block agree.…
Roundup: A little update goes a long way
With the recent changes in strata laws, we realised a lot of our information needed an update, links were broken and there are new answers to old questions, so this…
Airbnb feelgood factor crimped by $415,000 fines
Just hours after Airbnb polished their sharing and caring image with a pro-refugee ad during yesterday’s Superbowl TV broadcast in America last week, a city council has punched a $415,000…
A good whinge and the power of negative thinking
Nobody likes a whinger, but in strata, sometimes it pays to stow your personal aversion to complaining. A well-timed complaint could save you a heap of grief, not to mention…
Kiwi writer finds Sydney airbnb trashed
I am “sharing” this extract from a column written by the excellent David Slack in the Sunday Star Times in New Zealand. Sharing is a word we use on the…
Alarming prospects when phone lines are cut
Within 18 months of the NBN coming to your suburb, all copper wires will be disconnected … potentially leaving you without a back to base fire alarm or emergency lift…
Cheaper electricity for strata schemes that are pro Choice
I had no idea about this until a Flatchatter asked if it was real. It does sound too good to be true, I admit, but our major sponsors Strata Choice have found…
Flat Chat 600 – Still crazy after all these years
Writing a new column – on the value of a good whinge, if you must know – I noticed that this would be our 600th Flat Chat. It’s true –…
Budget strata insurance now online
One of the most contentious issues in the new strata laws that came into force in NSW last year was the question of compulsory strata insurance and commissions paid by…
Roundup: Now strata residents have three amigos
Maybe it’s coincidence, maybe it’s a cunning plan, but the two MPs who had most to do with creating and establishing our new strata laws in NSW are now, after the…
New strata laws, same old dirty tricks
Now that the holidays are out of the way, the first of the year’s AGMs will soon be upon us. That will be the first time most of us will…