This week, JimmyT and Sue Williams discuss the brand new empty flats that investors are "warehousing" - keeping them locked up and unlived in - until the property market improves.Then there's the new report about the massive costs facing owners in buildings with flammable cladding - and why our state governments need to do more to help owners..And finally a look at people who get elected to their strata committees for all the worst reasons.Please enjoy ... share ... like ... subscribe. _________...
Jun 12, 2019•27 min
Since our last podcast took us to Russia, we thought we’d stay a lot closer to home with this week’s.A story in the Australian newspaper caught our eye, concerning growing signs that investors are prepared to mothball their brand-new, off-the-plan apartments.Rather than put their units on the market when both rents and property prices are in a downward spiral, some investors are locking them up until prospects improve.How can this make financial sense? Well, it may be a massive and totally legal...
Jun 12, 2019•27 min
Do you ever get the urge to stand for election to your strata committee? Are you convinced you could do a better job than the existing members? Do you want to join but keep being frozen out at the AGM?Our colleague Sue Williams has written a piece for The Sydney Morning Herald’s Domain section on whether or not you should join your strata committee.The answer to that question, by the way, is yes … and no.You can read Sue’s piece HERE.Meanwhile, here are our five reasons you should join your comm...
Jun 12, 2019•27 min
A big chunk of this week's podcast is taken up with discussing how worried we should be about the defamation case taken by the chairman of a small strata building in Manly (you can read all about it here), and what that means to those of us who like nothing more than firing off angry emails to vent our spleen at the powers that be in our apartment blocks.But before that, our regular correspondent Sue Williams has just returned from a trip to Russia where apartment living is much more common than...
May 30, 2019•25 min
Jimmy Thomson and Sue Williams discuss apartment living in the new Russia and the email exchange that cost a Manly tenant $120,000 in a defamation case. ____________________________________________________ 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 mail@flatchat.com.au. Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website . Recorded by Jimmy Thomson &...
May 28, 2019•25 min
JimmyT and fitness trainer Shannon Cleary discuss what works and what doesn't in apartment block gyms ... and what to do if you don't have one. ____________________________________________________ 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 mail@flatchat.com.au. Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website . Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue ...
May 21, 2019•33 min
Our article this week about the fabulous Parker rental apartment complex in Alexandria, Washington DC, got me thinking about the facilities that are intended to entice us to buy and rent in apartment blocks.One popular item is a gym – but that word covers a multitude of sins. It could be a fabulous, state-of-the-art facility that would grace any five-star hotel.Or it could be an airless converted store room with neglected and clapped out equipment that’s occasionally augmented by the “donation” ...
May 21, 2019•33 min
JimmyT talks to Tim Sara, a senior manager at one of Australia's biggest strata management companies - and reveals both the light and dark side of a challenging career. ____________________________________________________ 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 mail@flatchat.com.au. Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website . Recorded by...
May 14, 2019•35 min
When Flat Chat started about 15 years ago, strata managers were (we thought) public enemy number one. And it’s more than likely the feeling was mutual.We won’t go into a rehearsal of why that was, suffice it to say that things have changed … a lot.The industry has become more professional, standards have been raised and the quality of service – and mutual respect between strata managers and you, their clients – has gone up by leaps and bounds.OK, there are still some rogues out there and Fair Tr...
May 14, 2019•35 min
Jimmy T and Sue Williams explore the latest developments in the strataverse ... and come up with some very odd stories indeed. ____________________________________________________ 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 mail@flatchat.com.au. Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website . Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcr...
May 07, 2019•21 min
A strange thing happened on the Flat Chat Statcounter a few weeks ago. Statcounter is the software that tells us how many people are reading the website … (more than 4000 a week, if you must know, and still growing)Anyway, there was a whole bunch of searches from the NSW Department of Energy and the Environment, which sounds as Orwellianly conflicted as a Department of Peace and Arms Sales, to me. But what do I know?I definitely don’t know why the Department of E and E would even be remotely int...
May 07, 2019•21 min
There's a revolution in strata law on the way in Victoria. Fire sprinkler systems are mandatory for mid-rise apartment blocks in NSW. And what's the best way to charge electric cars in strata schemes? JimmyT and Sue Williams discuss the issues of the week ... ____________________________________________________ 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 mail@flatchat.com.au. Register ...
Apr 30, 2019•27 min
When it comes to strata law reform, it can be a long time between drinks.Victoria is just at the end of the public consultation stage of their very substantial reforms to their strata laws and they still have a long way to go. It will be interesting to see how many of the proposed changed in their draft reform Bill actually make it on to the statute book.We have predicted two years until they see any changes, but it could be less, given that they are notionally updating the existing Act rather t...
Apr 30, 2019•27 min
With property prices plummeting across our major cities, JimmyT and Sue Williams identify where apartment values are plummeting, where they're holding and where off-the-plan purchasers are being told they can't walk away from new units that are worth less than they agreed to pay for them when the signed the contracts. ____________________________________________________ Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia. Find us on Facebook and Twitter and the Flat Chat website. Se...
Apr 24, 2019•28 min
It’s fair to say that this is probably not the best time to be a property owner. And if you are an investor in multiple units, your woes could be multiplied.On the other hand, if you are a renter, now could be the time to sign up for a long-term lease at a lower rent … if you can find oneThere are so many factors assailing property prices, it’s hard to see a clear way forward. This week in the Flat Chat Wrap, property writer Sue Williams takes us through some of the areas where the market is dro...
Apr 23, 2019•28 min
JimmyT and Sue Williams ask the big questions about the new strata minister ... like, who is he? Plus the best and worst of Australia's strata laws and what makes an ordinary pet a "support animal". ____________________________________________________ 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 mail@flatchat.com.au. Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymousl...
Apr 09, 2019•26 min
Fancy a 400 sqm penthouse with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, two parking spaces plus uninterrupted city and parkland views … for only $1.19 million?Interested? Why wouldn’t you be? This place also as a huge gourmet kitchen, timber floorboards, a massive tiled terrace and a fully fitted home office.What’s the catch, you ask. Well, this particular penthouse is atop a boutique hotel … in Tamworth.Now, your next question might well be, why are we looking at bargain basement penthouses in the coun...
Apr 09, 2019•26 min
Jimmy Thomson and Sue Williams take a wry - and slightly bruised - look at what's attracting mail to the Flat Chat Forum. ____________________________________________________ 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 mail@flatchat.com.au. Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website . Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed ...
Apr 02, 2019•21 min
Jimmy Thomson talks to Sue Williams about why she loves apartment living and would never live in a house. ____________________________________________________ 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 mail@flatchat.com.au. Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website . Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai. Fin...
Mar 26, 2019•25 min
A while ago I received a complaint from a reader that I had used the phrase “the very best in apartment living”.‘Very best”, she argued, implied that there was something good about living in a flat, and since this was clearly a stupid and perverse idea, I was being dishonest.Now, I have to admit that, running a website that sets out to solve people’s problem does have a fairly negative beginning: no problems, no website.Most of the people who come here, or read the Flat Chat column in the Financ...
Mar 26, 2019•25 min
Jimmy Thomson and Sue Williams discuss what the various parties are offering strata residents and owners in the run-up to the NSW state election. ____________________________________________________ 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 mail@flatchat.com.au. Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website . Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Su...
Mar 19, 2019•23 min
It's hard to believe that we'll be voting on Saturday (March 23) for, possibly, the first new government in NSW in eight years. It's also hard to believe that we have a fixed term of four years here in NSW while the Federal Parliament has a maximum of only three years ... if they get that far.Three years is too short. New Federal governments tend to spend the first year undoing the work of their predecessors, the second pursuing their own agenda and the third getting ready for the next election....
Mar 19, 2019•23 min
Labor spokesperson for Better Regulations and Innovation (and Fair Trading) Yasmin Catley calls in on the Flat Chat podcast ... and part two of the chat with OCN chair Phil Gall. ____________________________________________________ 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 mail@flatchat.com.au. Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website . R...
Mar 12, 2019•38 min
We were very lucky last weekend to catch up with Labor spokesperson for Better Regulation and Innovation Yasmin Catley who, current polls suggest, is a very real prospect of being NSW’s next Minister for Consumer Affairs (she will ditch the Ministry of Long Names title).Yasmin has been getting a lot of coverage in Flat Chat recently for one simple reason – she has been talking about strata and things she wants to do to make our lives better.Better Regulations Minister Matt Kean has, admittedly, ...
Mar 12, 2019•38 min
JimmyT talks to OCN chair Phil Gall about how the Owners Corporation Network gets stuff done despite bring underfunded ... and what their cladding seminar offers apartment owners ____________________________________________________ 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 mail@flatchat.com.au. Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website . R...
Mar 06, 2019•32 min
It used to be that when anyone talked about problems in strata, the perennial topics were the four Ps – pets, parking, parties (the noisy kind) and puffing (the smoke wafting from your neighbour’s balcony into your home).These days you are more likely to find yourself talking about Airbnb, inflammable cladding and building defects. Why? For the simple reason that there’s a lot of them about.It still beggars belief that state governments are happy to hand their housing and planning policies over ...
Mar 06, 2019•32 min
JimmyT rants about Airbnb, defects (and the Opal Tower report) and cladding ... and explains why we'll never get a Royal Commission into the apartment building industry. ____________________________________________________ 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 mail@flatchat.com.au. Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website . Recorded b...
Feb 26, 2019•17 min
I was intrigued this week by the announcement by the Federal Labor leadership that they plan to pour some of the money from their proposed “honesty tax” on banks into lawyers to help ordinary people get back what they’ve had chiselled out of them by unscrupulous money people.What a great idea. Make the baddies pay for people to help their victims. Now, how about a defects tax on developers to do just the same?OK, developers aren’t making the shed-loads of moolah that the banks are coining – the ...
Feb 26, 2019•17 min
The fire earlier this month (February 2019) on the outside of the Neo200 building in Melbourne conveniently coincided with a meeting of state and federal government ministers at which it was announced that the highly dangerous product would be banned from our shores.Of course, this is way too late for the people who have bought apartments in buildings that are covered in the potentially deadly material. You might as well set fire to the stable door - the horse has bolted.Although they are approa...
Feb 22, 2019•6 min
Talking off-the-plan purchases and defects - plus your calls - with James Valentine. And why Sydney MP Alex Greenwich thinks Airbnb is bad for Sydney renters, and Mark Latham will be bad for the NSW parliament. ____________________________________________________ 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 mail@flatchat.com.au. Register to ask and answer questions about apartment livin...
Feb 19, 2019•43 min
