FLAT CHAT WRAP

If you have a hankering for the high life and have a lazy $22 million lying around, you could score an apartment in the huge Crown tower above James Packer’s (currently non-functioning) casino.If that’s too rich for your blood, how much would you expect to pay for a two-bed, two-bath pad on a lower floor? All is revealed in our Flat Chat Wrap podcast this week.But before we get to that, there’s the small matter of how data mining is going to lead to a trebling of the number of apartment blocks under construction that will fall under the critical glare of NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler.Listen HereAs this story explains, Fair Trading is planning to dig into its accumulated data to find out which certifiers have historically signed off on the most problematic buildings, then reverse engineer that to find out which buildings under construction those certifiers are now connected with.That will trigger a visit from someone from the Building Commissioner’s office who will start tapping tiles and probing plaster to see how well or badly this building has been constructed.Then we get to the issue of the high cost of buying into Sydney’s tallest apartment block, the Crown Tower at Barangaroo.Yes, an apartment changed hands for $22m recently but there are others there that are a lot cheaper … okay, a bit cheaper.The we look at the new 899-unit apartment complex proposed for Campbelltown and discuss the issues confronting owners in separate strata schemes that are also part of a larger scheme sharing some facilities.And finally, Jimmy answers a question asked by Sue last week – will the big insurers ever come back and cover the construction of apartment block over three storeys high.That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.Transcript In FullJimmy 0:00Big news on the defects front, Sue?Sue 0:02Yes, absolutely. The New South Wales Government is acting to start auditing a lot more buildings than they usually do (and they have been doing over the last six months).Jimmy 0:11Okay, because we saw that report last week about how a huge percentage of defective buildings were certified by like, six different certifiers.Sue 0:23That's right; about a third of risky buildings, by the same six repeat-offending certifiers.Jimmy 0:30We're going to be talking about that; we're going to be talking about a big new development and I'm going to be answering a question that Sue asked last week (and I went off-track, and answered a completely different one). I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue 0:50And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy 1:09And this is the Flat Chat Wrap. [MUSIC]JimmyJust as we were about to sit down and record this podcast, a press release came in from New South Wales Fair Trading, Sue, and it's big news.Sue 1:20That's right. Kevin Anderson, the Minister for Better Regulation, has launched a data-led audit regime to target the state's high-risk building certifiers and triple the number of buildings to come under scrutiny by the building regulator.Jimmy 1:34What sort of numbers are we talking about?Sue 1:36Well, at the moment, there's a pre-occupational certificate audit regime, and they target around 50 site-based audits every six months. But, with this new regime of audits, they're expecting to be able to audit an additional 100 to 150 buildings every six months, which more than triples the regulator's compliance and enforcement efforts on residential apartments.Jimmy 2:00Wow.Sue 2:01So, that's a big jump.Jimmy 2:02It's huge. So, they're basing this on certain new data or analyzing data they already have?Sue 2:11Well, they've got apparently, new digital tools, where they can analyze the data really effectively, because apparently, they've got so much data coming in; they've got something like 170 million lines of data to look at certifi..

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Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

There’s a horror story, a happy ending and a bit of housekeeping in this week’s podcasts.The horror is the $714 million owed by Home Building Compensation for all the insurable building defects in Australian homes. And that is money that we, the taxpayers, will eventually have to payIt was all revealed in this story in the Sun-Herald which made us think, if that’s the level of defects in homes than can be insured – anything three storeys or under  or any work costing $20,000 or over – how may defects are there in the high-rises that CAN’T be insured?Listen HereThe happy ending comes courtesy of Waverley Bowling Club in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs – a struggling sports facility that was at various times going to be two 45-metre high rises plus a training ground for Easts rugby league club, and then an aged care home with attached child care facility.As outlined in this story, Easts, the Waverley club and developers Mirvac have come up with a plan to build 55 luxury apartments for over-55s, plus two world class bowling greens and a café restaurant.By the way, in the podcast I refer to the bowls as bowling balls.  They’re not balls, they're bowls.  I apologise.Finally we chat briefly about why we’ve (ever so slightly) changed the look of the Flat Chat website.I’ve never been a huge fan of form over function and we needed people to be able to access the latest Forum topics high on the front page.  So it looks a little busier but we think it still works.  What do you reckon?You’ll find a full explanation pus an email address where you can send your complaints or kudos, HERE.TRANSCRIPTION IN FULLJimmy  00:00So, your friend David Chandler, has interfered with the completion of our renovation; did you know that?Sue  00:06No!Jimmy  00:07We were supposed to be getting a silicone guy come in on Saturday, and he couldn't, because there was a building they're working on that the Commissioner had been through and insisted that all the bathrooms had to be 're-caulked', as they call it.Sue  00:25Oh, gosh! David didn't let me know that!Jimmy  00:29So basically, there were panic stations.Sue  00:32So, that's the reason I still can't have a shower in my fabulous new renovated bathroom?Jimmy  00:37Yeah, David Chandler.Sue  00:38Bloody hell!Jimmy  00:40We will be talking about, not renovations, but rectification of defects in a minute, and we're going to talk about a rescue plan for the Waverley Bowling Club, which is going to result in 55 luxury apartments for over 55's, and we're going to talk about the redesign of the Flat Chat website. It's not redesigned; it's a bit of a tweak, that's all. I will explain what we've been up to. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  01:13And I'm Sue Williams. I write about property for Domain,Jimmy  01:16And this is the Flat Chat Wrap. That was a huge story in the Sun-Herald at the weekend, about the amount that's having to be paid in home building compensation.Sue  01:41That's right. I didn't quite understand it, though... I wanted you to explain it to me, because builders pay for home building compensation.Jimmy  01:51HBC, yeah.Sue  01:52But, then they pass the cost on to homebuyers?Jimmy  01:55Yes.Sue  01:55How does that work out? Can you explain to me?Jimmy  01:58Okay, well, first of all, it's only for buildings that are under four storeys.Sue  02:04Right. Buildings over that can't get any insurance whatsoever, which is ridiculous.Jimmy  02:09That's because in 2010, the insurers (the private insurers) said, 'look, all these buildings are being built, that are being self-certified. It's just too big a risk. We're out of here. It's going to cost us our industry, if we insure buildings that we know are going to be shoddily built.

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Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

Apologies for subjecting you to another short-term letting vent, but after last week's state government schemozzle when the new holiday rental regulations were announced, then shelved, we thought we’d better have a look at what was going on.And it turns out it was a case of history repeating itself. Remember a couple of years ago when the then Planning Minister Anthony Roberts and former Better Regulation Minister Matt Kean were about to announce new NSW short-term letting regulations that would basically have handed the whole box and dice to Airbnb-style hosts on a plate?The microphones were plugged in, the TV cameras lights were at full dazzle, and then right at the last minute a couple of Government MPs realised that residential rentals across the state were about to be handed wholesale to a bunch of American “disruptors” with few if any comeback or restraints.Listen HereSuddenly it was mikes off, lights out and “don’t call us, we’ll call you”.Well, something similar happened last week, only the announcement of what would probably have been the toughest short-term letting regulations in Australia was made and then three days later they were shelved until NovemberWhat happened? Surely it wasn't just that holiday rental giants Stayz and apartment owner advocates OCN both complained bitterly, was it? Listen to the podcast for our somewhat cynical insight into the whole farrago.Also we look at Mascot Towers, two years down the track, the massive financial losses apartment owners face and what we think the government should do.And Sue visits West Australia where property is going through the roof in a state that almost defines the phrase "boom and bust".That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.Transcript in fullJimmy  0:00 Wow, what a week; double whammy! No sooner had we published last week's podcast, all about the new Airbnb or short-term letting regulations, then the government did a U -turn.Sue  0:14 Yeah, they were obviously listening to you, Jimmy and thought, 'wow, we realize there's so many problems with it.'Jimmy  0:20 Then I've looked on the internet and discovered that you couldn't actually hear the podcast anyway. We had about 11 listeners and then you were away; you were in Perth?Sue  0:31 Yes, I was.Jimmy  0:32 So, I couldn't re-record.Sue  0:34 But you managed to sort it out.Jimmy  0:35 Kind of, yes and here we are today. We're going to talk about why we think the government changed its mind. We're going to talk about Mascot Towers; the latest on that. And, we're going to talk about a massive projected increase in house prices in WA.Sue  0:53 A sign of my dedication, going over there to check it out for you.Jimmy  0:56 Absolutely, going round all the real estate agent windows, taking notes. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  1:08 And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  1:11 And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.So, that was a pretty sudden turnaround by the government on short-term letting. I mean, they released it on Friday afternoon, a week ago. 'Take the trash out day' (they call it on the West Wing here, where you get rid of all the stories that you don't want  to have too much coverage in the weekend papers, in the hope that they'll all be forgotten about, come Monday). The Owners Corporation Network got really upset about some of the provisions. The Stayz people (I think they're owned by Expedia), got very, very, very upset and Airbnb stayed very, very, very quiet.Sue  2:07 Who knows what they think?Jimmy  2:08 I think we know what they think. Then suddenly, the planning minister came out and said in the interest of conciliation and fairness and giving everyone a chance to adjust to the plans, they were putting them off until November.Sue  2:22 

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Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

Sometimes you can be just too efficient. There we were with the NSW government's proposed regulations on short-term letting hot off the printer, plus industry responses and reactions from apartment owners ... then the Government panicked in the face of widespread complaints from all directions and put them on hold.Just as well this week’s podcast also deals with those other perennial issues in strata – parking and defects.However, our chat about the now-shelved short-term rentals code of conduct and related regulations - which seem to have annoyed just about everyone on all sides - is still relevant because these issues aren't going to go away, even if the solutions are seen to be more of a problem than the problem.As detailed here, Planning NSW had done a magnificent job in uniting both pro and anti-holiday letting bodies … if only in everyone being cheesed off with the state’s planners.The changes have been delayed until November 1 to "give everyone a chance to adjust." Have a listen and see what we need but aren't going to get until November at the soonest. And see if you can tell which policies will survive six months of pressure from Airbnb and Stayz.Oh, and apologies to anyone who tried to listen to the podcast but couldn't. Not our fault - there was just some glitch somewhere in the internet. I suspect the Russians, but it's all been fixed now (fingers crossed). Listen HereThen we move on to the prospective property purchaser who found that there’s nothing she or Building Commissioner David Chandler can do about an allegedly defective building that probably should never have had a certificate of occupation issued – certainly not on the basis of the certification signed by an unlicensed and unqualified tradie.In Maryam Behrouz’s case, the building has been certified for occupation, the developer denies the claims of serious defects and she either has to complete the purchase or walk away from her $65,000 deposit.In Mr Chandler’s situation, this all happened before he was given the power to block certification and as a result, he says, it’s not in his domain.Fair Trading – the department in charge of builders, tradies, strata and certifiers –  typically, says it has nothing to do with the problem as it’s “contractual”. Some things never change.And finally, we float the idea of providing a service that can move illegally parked cars without towing them. Have a look at the video along with this story and see what you think.That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.Transcript in fullJimmy  00:00We had a bit of a podder's nightmare this week. We prepared our episode for this week's podcast, all about the new Airbnb or short term letting laws and regulations and what we thought was good and what we thought was not so good.And we got it all packaged up and ready to go out. And late on Tuesday night after the podcast had gone out, the government changed its mind in the face of some fairly hostile criticism and decided to postpone everything until November.Now that left us with our podcast having gone out to the world, and us commenting on something that's still gonna happen, it's just not going to happen very soon or in the form that possibly we had thought it would.Anyway that I think it's still a worthwhile discussion. The rules are on the table, they're going to be pulled apart and put back together again, and they may end up being pretty much as they are in this discussion.We're also talking about that terrible situation where the young woman had put in a deposit for an apartment and then discovered that not only were there defects but that also the certification was extremely suspect.And we're going to talk about an interesting way of moving cars without towing them when they're parked in the wrong part of your car park.I will as usual be talking to Sue Williams, and I am as usual, Jimmy Thomson,

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Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

This week, having survived a computer crisis on the home office front, we delve deeper into the differences between the way renters are treated in Victoria and NSW.In the same week that Victoria’s new rental laws come in, curbing “no reason” evictions of tenants, NSW Fair Trading confirms that they will be reinstated as soon as the post-Covid period is over in September.So why should property owners not have the right to end their tenancy leases when they want to? Why should they need to prove that their reasons are valid, such as showing that they have permission to undertake renovations, or that they have signed a contract to sell the property?Jimmy puts up a strong argument that many landlords in Australia owe a debt to the community as a whole and that involves treating tenants fairly and decently.You can find the details of the NSW transitional measures for renters and landlords HERE and the Victorian regulations HERE.Listen HereThen we move on to the “brave” developer who, according to a story in a recent Sunday Telegraph, complained about building commissioner David Chandler closing down one of his apartment block building sites because of defects that were being built into the structure – faults that the eventual purchasers would probably end up paying to fix.According to a story in the Sunday Telegraph last week, Omar Abdul-Rahman, director of OandE Developments, had a litany of building defect complaints raised against him, or companies of which he was a director, dating back to 2017.He complained that he had never been on a building site where Australian Building Standards were resolutely adhered to.Maybe so, but if he wasn’t on David Chandler’s radar before, he certainly will be nowFinally, we move on to an idea being floated – not for the first time – that voting at strata AGMs should be compulsory, as it is at every other level of the democratic process.Jimmy argues that if strata really is the fourth level of government, then it should have the same compulsion to vote as in national, state and council elections.Sue argues that it’s up to strata schemes to engage their owners more effectively and if they can’t do that, then why should owners turn out for dreary nights at AGMs when either nothing happens or nasty personal disputes are played out in public.That’s all (and more) in this week’s podcast.Transcript In FullJimmy  00:00Computers, eh?!Sue  00:01Yes!Jimmy  00:02They're great when they work, and they're bloody useless when they don't.Sue  00:07Well, I had a problem with my computer and you tried to fix it (which I was very grateful for), but apparently you 'bricked' the computer.Jimmy  00:16You've never heard that phrase before?Sue  00:17No, I havent.Jimmy  00:18Which means literally, you have turned the computer into something that is as useful as a brick.Sue  00:25Yes. Well, thank you very much for that, Jimmy!Jimmy  00:28I went and helped you get a new set up and almost stuffed that up, because I used the wrong dongle.Sue  00:37A complete nightmare. I hate computers!Jimmy  00:40I think they're great. Okay, today we're going to be talking about different attitudes to renters, between New South Wales and Victoria. We're going to be talking about the brave but possibly foolish man who decided to take on Building Commissioner, David Chandler. And, we're going to discuss whether it would be a good idea to have compulsory voting at AGM's in strata buildings. I'm Jimmy Thomson. I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  01:10I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  01:13This is the Flat Chat Wrap. So, it was a very interesting coincidence regarding two political changes in Victoria and New South Wales the other week, concerning rentals. In New South Wales,

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Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

In what turned out to be a fairly hectic week we hit a very welcome speedbump in the form of enforced rest and relaxation at a new apartment block launch, of all places.The apartment block was Portman on the Park in Sydney’s Green Square where Mirvac launched their latest concept with an evening of meditation, massage and mineral water.You can hear all about that and what’s so different about this project on the podcast where we also caught up with architects Tina Engelen who co-designed another iconic, environmentally conscious block, the Altair in Sydney's Kings Cross.Listen HereSo what has changed in her view of her job in the 20-plus years since the Altair was built?  A lot but she still constructs great big wide buildings that are really a series of independent towers stacked side by side.You’ll hear Tina and her collaborator Will Fung talk about the challenges of creating more intimate areas in massive buildings too. You can find out more about the Portman on the Park here. Then we move on to the NSW government’s Real Estate Experts panel which has been set up to make the industry more responsive to the needs of their consumers (it says here).Great idea – shame they didn’t include any consumer groups around the table.  Look forward to more reports on people telling us what they think we should have rather than us telling them what we need.Next, it's the NSW state government’s invisible blacklist for short-term holiday letting miscreants.  Plus, why, unlike in Victoria, landlords don’t need a reason to terminate rental agreements.And finally, there’s a tribute to Barry Dickson, who was the real Darryl Kerrigan of The Castle, holding out in his little bungalow on a corner as high-rises went up all around him.  That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.Transcript in FullJimmy  00:00It's been a busy week in strata-land.Sue 00:02Yes!Jimmy  00:03Well, we were at what is possibly the most relaxing launch of a new apartment building, ever.Sue 00:10That's true…Jimmy 00:12And, all sorts of announcements from the government, so we'd better get cracking! I'm Jimmy Thomson; I edit the Flat Chat website and write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  00:23And I’m Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  00:27And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]Jimmy  00:47We were at a very relaxing launch (it was kind of weird, to be honest), at the Mirvac Portman on the Park building.Sue  00:55It's centered around wellness; everything's very healthy and sustainable and green. The building's meant to make you happy and relaxed, so they tried to make us happy and relaxed at the launch.Jimmy  01:15Well yes, to give us a sense of what it might be to live there, because they’ve got a building in George St (an office building), which has a ‘WELL’ rating, and they want that to be the first apartment building in Australia to have a WELL rating, so I had a quick look at what gets you a WELL rating.Sue 01:35What does?Jimmy  01:36Clean water, clean air and good light, so basically anything that helps you to be physically and mentally healthy, is going to get you those things. We had a water sampling…Sue  01:50A water tasting, and because I don't drink, I thought I’d be really good at the water tasting, but in fact I was rubbish.Jimmy  02:02Almost got them all exactly wrong! We had very nice food; very healthy food and then we were all taken into a darkened room and we had to meditate.Sue  02:13We had a guided meditation…Jimmy 02:18Which I found quite stressful.Sue 02:21Because you had to breathe at the same time. There was a special length of breath that you had to have, which was a bit beyond me.Jimmy  02:24‘Hold your breath for eight seconds.’Sue 02:30That's not relaxing at all!Jimmy 02:32

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Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

In this week’s Flat Chat Wrap we discuss the awful story about the young woman who put her life savings into a deposit on a flat in a block that’s turned out not only to be riddled with defects, but was certified by an unlicensed tradie and subsequently OK’d by the local council.Now she faces the very real choice between losing her $60k+ deposit or finalising the purchase of a flat she knows is seriously defective and with no legal approvals.Listen hereThen there’s the local council that’s telling developers they can build higher if they don’t install gas but do put solar panels on the roof to supply 40 percent of the block’s electricity needs.This is a clear example of a council taking positive action on climate change – and if you wonder if that’s an over-reach, ask the people being rescued from floods right now.But can electricity ever be as good as gas for cooking?  One celebrity chef thinks so.We also hear about government plans to make it harder for developers to build “affordable” new generation boarding houses. Why would they make it harder?  Because developers are getting planning concessions and then charging top dollar for the bed-sits.Wow!  Developers taking advantage of planning concessions to make some extra dosh?  Who’da thunk it?And finally, there’s the couple who were so worried about the potential noise from proposed renovations in the apartment block next to their luxury beach-side home, that they bought the whole block. Is it so they can, if they want, shut the renos down? Or do they just want to be able to choose their neighbours?That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.Transcript In FullJimmy  00:00They say it never rains, but it pours. It's certainly pouring outside at the moment, and it's been raining stories on your computer, Sue Williams?Sue  00:09It sure has.Jimmy  00:10We have a lot to get through today. We've got a story about a woman who's going to lose a deposit on her apartment because somebody certified it, who wasn't entitled to certify it. We've got a story about a developer, building apartments with no gas for cooking. We've got a story about developers wanting to develop… what do you call them?Sue 00:20New generation boarding houses.Jimmy 00:24New generation boarding houses, and the couple who have bought the apartment block next door, so that it doesn't get renovated and disturb their peace and quiet. If only we had that much money!  I'm Jimmy Thomson. I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  00:58And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  01:01And this is the Flat Chat Wrap. Okay, Sue, a terrible story about somebody who put a deposit down on a flat and discovered that the apartment had been certified by somebody who was not in fact, a certifier?Sue 01:33Yeah, I think he was an unlicensed tradie, wasn’t he?  He was a bricklayer or something like that, who no longer had a license.Jimmy  01:43So, he just signed off on this certification, and so that meant that the council gave them a certificate of occupancy; is that correct?Sue  01:49That's right, even though they discovered there were considerable non-compliance’s in the building. There were huge faults in the building, but poor Marianne has no option really, but to carry on with her purchase, because otherwise she's going to lose her deposit.Jimmy  02:07I mean, what's the point of having certification, if anybody can come along and certify, and there's no comeback? The council just goes, ‘oh, yes, certified.’ Then you say, ‘well, the certifier shouldn't have certified it,’ and the council say, ‘yeah, there's all these compliance issues, but we're going to allow it to go through.’ Where is the consumer protection?Sue  02:26Yep, it's a ridiculous system; private certification always has been.

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Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

Are you over working from home?  Does your formerly perfectly adequate apartment now seem tiny.  Is your kitchen table too high and your laptop screen too small?Are you one of those people who gets up and dresses as if they were going to the office – then just goes to the spare room?Or do you take personal pride in how much of the day you can spend in your pyjamas?Importantly, and are you missing those moments of splendid isolation on your bike, bus or train that transport you mentally into work mode as your body is moved from home to the workplace.As this story from the Guardian shows, some frustrated commuters are prepared to fake it if they can’t actually make it.As pressure quietly mounts to get more people back to the office, there are still plenty of us who don’t have that choice and may even miss the journey to and from work more than the experience of being in an office.Listen HereEnter, the Virtual Commute championed by Microsoft (who else?), it allows you to make that mental transition into your working day while your body stays exactly where it is.We’re talking about that, and other coping strategies, on this week’s podcast.Also, we’ll be looking at how the lure of free money may be helping some people overcome their concerns about the state of the apartment building industry.And, on that topic, we revisit the “worst block in NSW” that prompted Building Commissioner David Chandler to be given his sweeping powers to shut down building sites and demand repairs for badly consturcted high-rises.All, and more, in this week's Flat Chat wrap.Transcript in fullJimmy  00:00When was the last time you worked in an office?Sue  00:03Gosh, about 20 years ago, I think.Jimmy  00:09I occasionally have to, for special projects. I have to go and spend time in an office and I'm really, really bad at it.Sue  00:18Absolutely. I sometimes have to go into an office, and it takes me ages to work out what to wear. I'm just completely out of practice.Jimmy  00:25I'm thinking more in terms of people coming up to you and saying, ‘oh, how was your weekend?’ My instinctive response is, ‘what is it to you? I'm trying to work here,’ which is not the appropriate response. There are some people who, apparently, can't wait to get back to the office, who have been working from home. We'll be talking about that and we'll be talking about the end of the Home Builder grant, which is ending in just a couple of weeks. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  00:59And I'm Sue Williams. I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  01:02And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]Jimmy  01:15There's a big push on, to get people to go back to work in their offices. Mainly, I think, from the little cafes around office blocks in the city.Sue  01:32That's very expensive real estate, those commercial offices. They're designed to foster the cultural capital of companies and provide good workspaces for people. As you said in the intro, we've worked from home for a long time, so we've got a good desk, we've got good chairs; we've got space. We've got office cats. We've got everything, really, but a lot of people are working in their bedroom or their kitchen, on dining room tables, which are the wrong height, and they're getting back injuries. It's not really very good for them. While productivity soared at first, they've noticed that productivity is now flagging a little bitJimmy  02:13I saw a politician saying that, and it made me wonder, has anybody done any test; any checks, or any measures on this? Or, is this just a grumpy old politician saying everybody should be back in the office? This is a politician in Canberra, saying that all the civil servants should be back in their offices, rather than sitting at home in their pajamas.Sue  02:38

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Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

There’s a few differences in this week’s podcast from previous editions.For a start, Sue is on the other end of a Zoom call as she takes advantage of easing travel restrictions to get out and promote her new book … and finds herself attacked by birds on the Gold Coast.Having survived that, we discuss the latest twist in the pets saga as celebrity dog owners are told they are living in a cats-only block (maybe that's why they call it NCAT).And the Tribunal Member decrees the recent Court of Appeals ruling that blanket pet bans are invalid is irrelevant. Isn't banning dogs but allowing cats discriminatory? Who are we to judge? Listen HereThen, another change is that we have short audio grabs from interesting people, rather than long interviews.  And we have several of them.Sue joins Building Commissioner David Chandler on a development and sees for herself the galvanising effect this force of nature – ok, force of structure – has on the developers, architects engineers and builders when he sweeps into a building site.And you’ll never guess the one thing he always heads for, photographs and then confronts the developer with.Finally, Jimmy visits a new apartment that’s been tiled with “micro-recycled” product made from old clothes and glass.That’s all in this weeks’ Flat Chat Wrap.Transcript in fullJimmy  00:00Well, this is a bit strange. I'm sitting looking at an empty chair, and that's because my normal sparring partner and co-host is not here. She's on the Gold Coast, and that's because now that all the travel restrictions are lifted, she can do her book tour, promoting her new book. In real life; in person. She doesn't have to do it on Zoom, which is ironic, because now she has to do this podcast on Zoom. We'll be talking to her later, about things like the new twist in the pet laws, her visit to a site with Building Commissioner David Chandler, and a new product that I went to investigate in an apartment block, which is a tile made out of old glass and old clothes. I'm Jimmy Thomson, and this is the Flat Chat Wrap. [MUSIC]JimmySue, what are you doing in the Gold Coast?Sue  01:23I'm being attacked by birds at the moment. I'm just in the Gold Coast doing a talk about the history of the beginnings of colonial Sydney.Jimmy 01:31Why would you be doing that?Sue 01:35It’s related to my book, an historical novel, called Elizabeth & Elizabeth, about Elizabeth MacArthur and Elizabeth Macquarie in the early days of the colony. The book is apparently going extremely well, so I'm doing a little mini-tour. I've done a few Zoom talks and meetings; you know, talks in front of lots of different people, and this is my first one in person. So, with the borders open, they're doing it here.Jimmy  02:01Which means you have to talk to me via Zoom.Sue  02:06Yes, that’s right, but never mind. The sound is okay.Jimmy  02:09It's not bad. You're sounding better than me; I don't know how that works. This whole thing with pets, has reared up again.Sue  02:19Yeah, and in quite a bizarre way. It always seems to be, you just never can quite predict it, really. We've had the big fight about allowing pets into buildings. Then we've had the Court of Appeals saying, well, no, blanket bans on pets aren't allowed and now we had a couple who had a dog. They went into a building that didn't allow dogs. Kind of a little bit like Jo Cooper at Horizon (which started this whole fuss off), and they were told no, they had to get rid of their dog. So, they went to NCAT, saying, ‘well, the Court of Appeal has said blanket bans are unconscionable.’ Then NCAT came back with a very interesting ruling, because that building didn't actually have a blanket ban on pets. It only had a blanket ban on dogs. It actually allowed cats and fish, so he said the ruling wasn't relevant. Incredible, really, the twists and turns of this whole saga.

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Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

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, which is the fancy-pants modern name for what we used to call terraces.It seems that while pre-sales and construction of apartments are going down, sales of townhouses are on the way up and in this week’s podcast, we discuss why that might be.Listen HereThen we turn our gazes south to Victoria where their new strata laws have just passed.  OK, they won’t come into force until December, but we ask if they are blazing a trail for NSW strata laws to follow.And we preview Sue’s trip to the front line – well, a new apartment block under construction – with Building Commissioner David Chandler.  Will she need body armour?  Will he? It’s all in the Flat Chat Wrap.Transcript in fullJimmy  00:00So, it seems that people are buying fewer apartments, but more townhouses.Sue 0:07Oh, like strata townhouses?Jimmy 00:10Yep, most townhouses are strata these days, even in Randwick, where they tried to make everybody have company title.Sue 00:18Right.Jimmy  00:20There's that, and there's big changes to the law in Victoria, so we'll be talking about that. I'm Jimmy Thomson. I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue 00:31And I'm Sue Williams. I write about property for Domain.Jimmy 00:35And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC] JimmyOkay, Sue, there's new figures from a company run by your old sparring partner, Dr. Andrew Wilson.JimmyWhat they've indicated is that the government has been pumping money into the building sector; most of that money is going into stand-alone houses. The number of purchases (or the builds starting), for apartments has actually plummeted. It's going right down, but going down by less, is townhouses. You look at the graph (and the graph is on the Flat Chat website)…I'd say in about six months, it could actually meet; the number of townhouses, and the number of apartments are going to be about the same, which shows a big shift in people's thinking about how they want to live. They want to live in strata, because of the benefits of that, but they don't want to necessarily live in apartments. Why is that?Sue 01:57I wonder if that's the influence of the downsizers on the market. A lot of older people are a bit more nervous about moving into apartments, if they've never lived in them before. They're a bit anxious about having to deal with an owner’s corporation or a body corporate. I was talking to someone the other day from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. They were saying that, often older people were a bit nervous about moving into apartments, if they've never lived in them before, because they're nervous about who their neighbors might be, and whether there's going to be a noise above them, or next to them or below them.They can't quite get their head around the fact that (hopefully), apartments are built to be almost soundproof, but you know, I grew up in a terrace house… We heard everything our neighbors said; both sides of us and it wasn't such a big deal really. You just kind of got used to it. Well, I didn’t know anything different when I was a kid.Jimmy 03:03That’s the key; you know, if you've lived in a house where you're separate; even these big McMansions are exactly one meter apart, or whatever it is. You're not going to hear your neighbor so much, except when they go out into the backyard.Sue 03:18I'm arguing you often do, and there's less you can do about it, when you're living in a house. If the house isn't so well-built, you're always going to hear your neighbors from next door if you’re in a terrace. We know somebody who lives in a terrace and has terrible trouble with neighbors’ noise and that’s in Kirribilli in the lower North Shore of Sydney.  

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Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.