Podcast: Strata’s next big challenge – ageing blocks
This week’s podcast is given over to one topic – but it’s a fascinating one: What are we going to do about Australia’s older apartment blocks? Sure, there’s been a…
Forum: Are two-lot strata schemes too much hassle?
We tend not to hear too much about the mysteries two-lot strata schemes like duplexes and villas. Is “mysteries” over-stating it? For a long time Randwick Council in Sydney’s East…
Concern as 50,000 unit blocks reach use-by dates
Between Mascot Towers and the Opal building, and more recently Vicinity in inner-West Sydney, the high-profile problems at various Sydney apartment blocks has drawn our attention to the quality of…
Small business of a strata minister missing in action
We may be jumping the gun here but our fears that strata would be taking second place to small business haven’t only been confirmed, they’ve been compounded. You may recall…
Forum: Something fishy going on down by the pool
One of the reasons I love this job is that, even though we are often asking and answering variations on the same questions, almost every week I get a query…
Podcast: Holiday let free-for-all (except investors)
It’s Airbnb (and Stays etc etc) all the way in this week’s podcast (sorry!) as we discuss the implications of Jimmy’s belated discovery that the Sydney-only by-laws banning holiday lets…
Airbnb by-law bounced over fob-cancelling clause
A Sydney apartment complex has had its entire “no-airbnb” by-law rescinded after an appeals tribunal confirmed two clauses in the four-page by-law were invalid. The first clause would have allowed…
When the shine wears off golden oldie apartments
There are innumerable good reasons for wanting to buy an apartment – it could be empty nesters downsizing from a McMansion, renters upgrading to a place of their own, or…
Forum: Delayed complaint leads to doubt over debt
Here’s a tricky one from a Flatchatter who wants to do the right thing but isn’t sure how much he should actually do. The problem is that the owner downstairs…
Strata residents dodge holiday let by-law bans
UPDATED: Feb 10. With Australia’s borders about to open to overseas tourists, there is considerable confusion over who can and can’t let their flats as holiday lets in strata blocks…
Podcast: Another blow to ‘no-pets’ buildings
There’s another very mixed bag this week but it’s mostly good news in these trying times. Up in Queensland, the tribunal there is chipping away at restrictive pet by-laws in…
Live where you love, buy where you can afford
First-time buyers and investors can have the best of both worlds – live where they want and buy an affordable property, rent it out but have a toehold in a…