New Fair Trading minister has Western Suburbs edge
Remind us never to get into the business of political sophistry – our predictions of who would get what ministry in the new Minns government in NSW fell spectacularly short.…
Podcast: Property price bounce, Qld confronts crisis
Queensland held a round table about housing and homelessness recently as the Sunshine State faces a similar crisis to the rest of Australia when it comes to a shortage of…
SBS doco plots Scots’ plan to curb Airbnb
An episode of the SBS doco series Dateline is shining the spotlight on what some see as one of the greatest failures of government regulation in Australia – the largely…
Forum: SM says ‘my way or I take the highway’
You have to sympathise with strata managers sometimes. They go to a meeting, armed with all the information required to know what the best course of action is, plus the…
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…