Deadline near for free defects repairs program
Owners in NSW apartment blocks that are under six years old and have unaddressed defects have only two months to register their scheme under the Project Intervene program to have…
How owners and media keep a lid on problems
Our media has a strange relationship with strata issues. It’s often a passive conspiracy of silence between journalists and owners, in which secrecy, confusion, erroneous assumptions and wilful ignorance either…
Podcast: Power shifts but does strata matter?
Ah, the perils of trusting poll predictions immediately after an election. While Labor have definitely won and Chris Minns is definitely the new Premier of NSW, the balance of power…
Forum: All fired up over EV safety in strata
There’s a bit of a stoush developing in the Forum over the charging of electric cars. If it’s not concerns about exploding batteries and subsequent fires, it’s worries about sneaky…
Podcast: Scots to crack down on holiday lets
This week sees us return to familiar ground both geographically and in terms of our topics as we take a look at an SBS Dateline episode set in and around…
Rent bidding ban has backfired, say RE agents
The NSW Government’s ban on agents from engaging in ‘rent bidding’ has backfired, as tenants are not only now more aware that they can offer above the asking rent, they…
Hold the avo: young buyers hungry for deposits
Spending on ‘smashed avocado’ brunches and other frivolous items is definitely not a lifestyle option for young people saving for their first home, no matter what their income level, new…
Benchmarking Qld strata scheme running costs
Comparing the costs of running different strata blocks can be like measuring apples against oranges – or apples and ducks, more like. How do you set a benchmark for costs…
Forum: Why doesn’t strata manager get defects fixed?
We’ve been giving Victoria such a hard time of late that we should point out that other states aren’t without their problems too. For instance, there’s a long and quite…
Is Victorian strata really a too-hard basket case?
COMMENTIs Victorian strata really in a state of chaos? And if that’s the case, how does that manifest itself, why is it so, and what can be done about it?…
Property boss pushes more build-to-rent blocks
The head of the developer lobby group Property Council of Australia (PCA) has urged state and federal governments to give more support to the build-to-rent, student accommodation and retirement living…
Podcast: Vic, the state of strata chaos
It seems as if every time we look away from Victoria, some thing new and awful happens in that state’s strata system goes seriously wrong. If it wasn’t the best…