Sapphire: Shattered dreams or a bullet dodged?
Work has halted on the near-complete Sapphire development, leaving initial investors frustrated and angry as they decide whether their shattered dreams are really a bullet that they've dodged.
off the plan
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…
Podcast: GOMO, strata facts and sea changes
This week on the podcast we look GOMO, specifically grief over missing out on your dream home. It’s the other side of FOMO, where fear of missing out has you…
Why first-time buyers need better protection
As our various governments, state and federal, lure us with grants and tax breaks into buying new and off-the-plan units, they really need to put more safeguards in place to…
Podcast 81 – Negative equity & positive plans
In this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast we encounter the best and worst in apartment living, from negative equity in off-the plan purchases, to multiple tenants causing parking chaos in…
Off-the-plan panic at the chocolate factory
Allegtions of “shape-shifting’ have raised their ugly face again, with a tale of off-the-plan owners not getting what they thought they had paid for when they finally moved into their new…
PODCAST : Email privacy, off-the-plan protection and power grabs
Privacy, consumer protections and how to engineer radical change in your apartment block are the main topics for discussion in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast. A heated discussion in…
Flat Chat Wrap 51 – Email privacy, off-the-plan protections and owner revolts
Privacy, consumer protections and how to engineer radical change in your apartment block are the main topics for discussion in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast. A heated discussion in…
How we changed the law on off-the-plan sales
It’s not often in journalism that you can look at a change in state law and say “I had a hand in that.” But the announcement of new protections for…
Property investments – experts say ‘go big’
With mortgage interest levels at an all-time low and apartment prices yet to reach the heights of a few years ago, there may never be a better time to take…
Boycott: Is it time we had an off-the-plan ban?
The advice from Owners Corporation Network spokesman Stephen Goddard could not have been more blunt: Don’t buy apartments off the plan. His actual words in an opinion piece in the…
Opportunists swoop and buyers walk as apartment prices plummet
Apartment owners trying to sell out of the now notorious Opal Tower block are being offered knock-down prices for their apartments, according to newspaper and online news reports. And neighbouring…