Reeling in the Ratbags
Right now (late 2004), somewhere in a State Government office, a team of bureaucrats, lawyers and politicians is trying to untangle the unholy mess that is our apartment-living strata laws.…
The Company of Strangers
They are becoming endangered species but there are still a few company title apartment blocks around and a shrewd investor shouldn’t necessarily shy away from them. Company Titles sprang up…
Balcony Barbecues – No Smoke Without Ire
It may be considered unAustralian but many people think there’s no place for barbecues on apartment block balconies. Especially in this age of eco-friendly, self ventilating buildings, the very thought…
Loathe Thy Neighbour
The hardest adjustment most people have to make when they move into apartments is simply getting along with neighbours all around them. It is usually a simple issue of tolerance…
Talkin’ ’bout a renovation
Renovating an apartment is quite different from renovating a house but in ways that are not immediately obvious. And you don’t want to discover that when you’re halfway through the…
Pet Peeves and Animal Attraction
There are few more vexatious issues in apartment blocks than the question of pet ownership. Some buildings won’t have a bar of the noisy, smelly little blighters while in others,…
Renters are people too
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with living side-by-side with renters in an apartment building – as long as they’re good neighbours, who cares? But you would be wise to avoid buildings…
A sense of security
One of the biggest reasons people move into apartments is for the added sense of security they afford over a house. Suddenly, there’s no need to see the world through…
Who owns the view?
There are few sights more chilling to an apartment owner that the appearance of a construction crane somewhere between you and your view, for which you have paid handsomely. We…
Vertical Villages
Some people still think of apartment living as a sad sequel of Rear Window, a collection of lonely desperates with only the view from their windows offering the distant promise…
Empty nesters fly high
Feet on the ground or pie in the sky – that’s the question apparently facing increasing numbers of empty nesters as they decide whether to sell up the large family…