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 […]

Forget flammable cladding and crumbling walls, it’s the little things in strata that really get people het up. And it’s one of those multifaceted culture clashes where there’s no obvious right or wrong that has had the Forum humming this week. The great debate is about shoes – specifically, footwear left outside apartment doors in […]

With consumer confidence in brand-new or off-the-plan apartments taking a hit after the Opal Tower crisis in Sydney, where massive cracks started appearing in supporting walls on Christmas Eve, many potential purchasers are turning to new but established apartment blocks as a safer option. Basically, you want a well-managed building: everything else flows from that.  […]

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 […]

Every so often I get the feeling that there must be a strand of DNA that makes people both nit-picking and want to live in strata. Take the post from a Flatchatter this week who has discovered that the repainting of his block’s common property won’t cover the units’ front doors because they are varnished, […]

Just when we thought the government didn’t care about strata they come up with a pre-election announcement designed to raise the high-rise feelgood factor. According to this story in the Sydney Morning Herald, if re-relected, the government will make it easier for strata schemes to install solar energy to their buildings. This includes solar panels, […]

With an election in NSW next weekend, and another for the whole country just a couple of months away, apartment owners and residents who aren’t rusted on to a party may well be looking at which policies will make their lives better or worse. Federally, apartment living isn’t even a blip on the political radar.  […]

By Sue Williams Residents at high risk from potentially deadly flammable cladding are being denied information about what they should do to make their buildings safe, consumer advocates claim. Instead, say apartment residents, they are being threatened with huge fines if they don’t fix the problem, while owners in some blocks have been told it […]