Sea-change block blitz as commissioner heads north
Sea-changing apartment buyers tempted out of Sydney by the charms of NSW’s north coast – or driven out by fears of future lockdowns – may feel slightly more secure this…
Commissioner
Podcast: Hit list for new property commissioner
In the same week that we get a new property services commissioner in NSW we hear that the first building construction certifier in NSW has been been sin-binned for a…
Hi-viz commish kicking butt and naming names
To some, he’s a knight in shining armour, a hero in a hi-viz. To others, he’s the devil incarnate. But wherever anyone might stand on the subject of rampaging NSW…
Drive to entice insurers back to high-rise buildings
Buyers of off-the-plan high-rise apartments in NSW might soon be able to claim on insurance for any defects arising within the first 10 years in a massive game-changer for the…
Holding out for a strata superhero (or heroine)
A couple of weeks ago we highlighted NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler’s heroic efforts to boost confidence in the construction of apartment buildings. But there’s another aspect of confidence in…
Would you advise a friend not to buy off the plan?
There was a survey of 500 apartment blocks conducted earlier this year by NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler’s team. It found that more than one-third of new buildings had serious…
Estate agents pull plug on proposed property panel
Real estate agents have pulled out of the much-derided Property Services Professional panel in NSW, with the CEO of their peak body saying it would have “no capacity to deliver…
Riding shotgun with our building commish
A couple of weeks ago, Sydney Morning Herald and Domain contributor Sue Williams accepted an invitation to see Building Commissioner David Chandler in action on a development site. How do…
Podcast: Why we’re turning to ‘new terraces’
What do you do when you want the shared responsibility of strata but don’t particularly want to live with people above and below you? You buy or rent a townhouse,…
Podcast: New pet laws and defining ‘reasonable’
In this week’s podcast we give the NSW Parliament’s deliberations on it’s new strata pet laws a kick along. As reported here, the Lower House has taken a good six…
Commissioner’s lifeline on new-build defects
Owners corporations in relatively new buildings deciding whether to fix building defects themselves or take recalcitrant developers to court – at huge expense and with no guarantee of success –…
‘Abominable’ tower was last straw on defects
An apartment block described by its developers as one of its “architectural landmarks of the finest standard” has been outed by NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler as the “straw that…