Whatever the Minister does to deal with regulatory failure in the construction industry, it will be welcome but quite possibly too little too late. The boom of the past few years will have left us with a legacy of residential apartments with suspect fire and waterproofing likely to burn holes in the pockets of future owners.
It is time for some honesty from both the government and the real estate industry about what an apartment purchase really involves – airspace not bricks and mortar and unlimited liability for whatever goes wrong in the building.
This elephant in the room should not be allowed to continue to browse unharrassed for fear of upsetting the property market. If the real estate industry is incapable of coming clean then, then it’s the Minister for “Better Regulation & Innovation” who should be driving public awareness of what apartment buyers, and particularly First Home Buyers, are letting themselves in for.