FLAT CHAT WRAP

This week on the podcast we are talking about YOU.  At least, we are talking about your pet hates, as defined by our highly unscientific and totally skewed poll on who irritates you most in your strata scheme.

The poll is on the Flat Chat home page and you can see the results when you vote. Sneaky way to get clicks?  Not really.  We simply don’t want to influence your choices.

Also we have a look at what’s happening – or not happening – at the Balmain Leagues Club site where plans for a new block have been put on hold again (but, it seems, for a good reason).

And we check out a report that renters could have saved thousands of dollars – or even have been able to find somewhere to live – if a critical planning restriction had been eased just a little.

Finally, there’s our Lock Up & Leave – a designer cabin in the bush that’s just far enough away from civilisation. Race you there!

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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 some good news, some bad news and some great news in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.

The good news (for investors) is that apartment prices and rents are going through the roof in Brisbane. The boom is being stimulated by preparations for the 2032 Olympics and an influx of new residents.

Of course, what’s good news for investors is generally bad news for tenants and not only are they facing rising rents and shortages of available properties in the Sunshine state, they’d think twice before escaping to Victoria.

There rents are rising but properties are falling, as in falling down.  An “undercover” inspection of properties offered for rent in Victoria  by the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) and Tenants Victoria revealed one-third of them failed to meet some of the basic living or safety standards.

And if you want to get away from all the doom and gloom, our Lock Up & Leave this week is a half-price, food and drink included, no-kids stay in a fancy hotel in Sorrento – the one in Italy, not the one in the Mornington Peninsula.

All that for $2k – less than a long weekend in a party flat in Docklands.  It’s all in the Flat Chat Wrap.

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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 we take a deep dive into the next swathe of proposed NSW strata reforms which will include attempts to cut through the baloney and BS and make it easier for owners to overturn unfair contracts.

What does that mean, exactly.  Well, when you realise that the maintenance fee for your stormwater drains actually includes the cost of installing them – which should have been borne by the developer – then that would be unfair.

Or when your strata management contract has a clause that says you and not they will be liable for bad decisions they make on your behalf, that seems kind of unfair too.

By the way, the final proposals will be posted for consideration and comment in April, so keep your keyboards poised for that.  There’s a lot more about this and other proposals in the pod.

Also this week we wrap up our trials and tribulations over our legal right to hold the strata roll and emails, and a very big strata firm’s country branch’s efforts to keep them from us.

Finally we have a very spicy Lock Up and Leave tour of the sub-continent. That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap. 

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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.

When newspaper reports presented the story about the defects in the Lachlan's Line apartment block in Macquarie Park, as if it was another Mascot Towers, Building Commissioner scolded journalists, assuring everyone that there was no need to panic.
There would be no evacuations, he said, but admitted his department might need to consider the language it uses when alerting the public to problems in apartment blocks.
Meanwhile a fire that gutted a unit in Bondi has alarm bells ringing over eBike batteries.  Should we panic over this? Or is just the combination of flats shared by delivery riders that need closer scrutiny.  
A webinar hosted by the OCN in a couple of weeks promises to get to the bottom of it (and provide a model by-law for members). 
And finally, our Lock Up and Leave this week features the foodie tour with celebrity chefs that you have without the celebrity chefs ... or the eye-watering price tag.  That's all in the Flat Chat Wrap.

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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.

After three pods in a row about Mascot Towers, we decided you (and we) needed a break so we are heading off to the seaside – figuratively, not literally – to see how property prices are doing on the North and South coasts of NSW.

One report has said that prices in some coastal areas have bounced back more than those in the city, while others have said there are bargains to be had outside (but not too far) the city limits.

So what’s going on?  We know office workers are being encouraged to go back to their offices and hybrid working hours are becoming popular.

Maybe all that means that Seachange properties that are within commutable distance are holding the line while weekenders – properties that are outside, say two hours from town – are going back to being what they were intended for and dropping in price accordingly.

After that, we can’t avoid Mascot Towers completely and we’ll be looking at who the winners (if any) and losers are as they hurtle towards the owners vote to accept or reject the David Chandler-wrangled offer early next month.

That’s all in the Flat Chat wrap

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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.

We’re back and this is an absolute blockbuster, which, considering the topic, is an oddly ironic term.

Last week Sue had an exclusive interview with NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler about the benighted Mascot Towers – the building that started crumbling about five years ago and whose evacuated former residents have been living in rental accommodations since.

Did I say five years? Turns out the towers had defects long before that.  

So how did David Chandler wrangle a possible (read probable) resolution between resident-owners who just want out, commercial lot owners and residents who want to stay, investors, banks and strata lenders?  

You could read our very own Sue Williams’ exclusive report in the Sydney Morning Herald … or Jimmy’s column in the Australian Financial Review, but first listen to this merely fascinating podcast where we hear David Chandler himself, make sense of it all.

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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.

We have an absolute rock star podcast guest this week, in NSW Building Commission Policy Director Angus Abadee.

Angus gave us a good 20 minutes of his valuable time to explain what the recent expansion of the building commission means, as well as the significance of the new laws passed recently.

The topics touched on included how they identify and approach developers they think might be cutting corners and building defects into their blocks – with a 90 per cent hit rate in that regard.

How they are helping low-rise developers who want to move up in the world, literally, by building medium-rise developments but lack the skills and experience to make the transition efficiently and effectively.

He spoke about how they and their counterparts in other states confer on key issues, and he confirmed that there are fewer reports of apartment building defects in Victoria simply because they are a couple of years behind NSW in identifying the problems – not because the problems don’t exist.

And he addresses the next challenge for the Building Commission – dealing with defects in older buildings that are outside their warranty periods.

We should note that this podcast came with its own construction problems. It was recorded using a hand-held device next to a computer speaker because Zoom had decided to remove or hide its “record” button.  It was edited on a laptop on our flight to Fiji then compiled into this post and uploaded to the internet from inside our holiday “bure” on Malolo Island.

All of which is to explain the less-than-perfect audio as well as to hope you think it was worth the effort when you hear it.

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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.

Don’t know if Building Commissioner David Chandler has a hotline to Santa but with the  Building Commission being boosted from 40 to 400 inspectors, you’d have to think his Christmas wishes have come true.

Then there’s the government plan to compel developers to include affordable and social housing in their schemes if they want to get approval – no trade-offs or sneaky deals for added floors. 

And there are the first hints of the proposals to open up land around rail hubs – which would be accidentally posted online, just as we were recording the pod.

We talk about the valid concerns over e-bike and e-scooter batteries, and some solutions, but point out that apartment blocks are far from being the most at risk.

We thank the people who contributed to our being the most successful fundraising team in the MedEarth Trails For Change walk (but it’s not too late to contribute HERE).

And we discover that this week’s Lock Up and Leave is not only close to home but close to Sue’s heart as one of her favourite holiday resort hotels in the whole world.  That’s all in this weeks’ Flat Chat Wrap.

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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.

It’s a packed Wrap this week with a lot happening in and around strata. Global credit rating and data analysis agency Equifax – the people who measure how many of David Chandler’s gold stars developers should get – have conducted a survey into how confident apartment buyers are in the properties they plan to purchase.

The answer is “not very” … unless they have a few of those highly sought-after gold stars to add some shine to their sales spin.

The Mascot Towers saga has taken another twist with owners refused permission to terminate the strata scheme with a view to walking away from their mounting debts.  What now for this benighted block and its emotionally and financially broken owners?

And talking of defective buildings, what does the supercharging of NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler’s powers in legislation that’s about to become law actually mean.

And finally we celebrate a travel writing award for Sue and join her on our Lock Up and Leave “Pick of the Trips”, by train across India – recalling a journey she took with her late Mum.

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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 talk about the proposal to introduce architectural pattern books in NSW.
Will they mean even more cookie-cutter apartment blocks or will  it simply result in the buildings that we need in a hurry not looking like they were designed in a primary school handicrafts project?

Then we look at what has happened at an apartment block that was only a few years ago named as the best residential building in the world.

Falling planter boxes and rising concern about flammable cladding have blotted the Central Park tower’s copybook.  Now the truly iconic building in Broadway, Sydney, has to work through these issues with multiple strata committees each having their say.  Wish them luck.

Next we pick up on perennial parking problems and some innovative (and only slightly illegal) methods for dealing with rogue parkers (aka parking thieves).

Parking illegally in a multi-storey car park is wrong on so many levels. (Joke Stolen from Tim Vine).

And finally, our Lock Up and Leave Pick of the Trips takes us on a small group tour to the Land of the Rising Sun. 

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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.