The Wrap is back with a look at sustainable apartments and the reality of spending a bit more to make a unit cheaper to live in.

The latest message is that even if the average ‘green’ unit costs $11k more, it will save you heaps of money… and salve your conscience too.

We also uncover two worrying trends in one of our states where developers are loading up strata committees with their employees – ignoring any allegations of obvious conflicts of interest.

Meanwhile, apartment owners seem blissfully unaware that there may be any potential problems. “They say they’re going to take care of defects and it’s in their best interests to do so, isn’t it?”

Well, is it? Or are there some developers who are more concerned with profits than their reputations – since they can change their names any time they like?

And finally we look at the conundrum of increased immigration putting pressure on the housing stock versus the need for skilled migrants to build more apartment blocks.

Is temporary accommodation in migrant camps the answer? Make them attractive places to stay – they don’t have to be like prisons. And would it be any worse than migrants having to share a two-bed flat with a dozen other renters?

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 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.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

Did you know that getting on for 4.5 million Australians live in strata? And who do you think comprises the single largest demographic group, from singles and couples through to one-parent families?

Can you even take a wild guess at the total value of strata properties in Oz, or what percentage of strata schemes don’t have strata managers?

This week we take a deep dive into the latest Australasian (it includes NZ) Strata Insights report from UNSW and SCA.

By the way, we got ourselves into a bit of a fankle over the Nepali language, which we mispronounced “nepawlee” rathere than “nepa-ly”, and which we partially correctly said was Nepalese – as in, the official language of Nepal.

In fact, Nepali is spoken by more than up to 20 million people, mostly in Nepal and neighbouring parts of India. Smaller speech communities exist in Bhutan, Brunei, and Myanmar. And in Melbourne too, it seems.

We also take a quick check on what the various political parties are offering by way of tackling the housing crisis and we talk briefly about why it’s such a surprise to see one of our apartment developer giants exposed in the news.

That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.

____________________________________________________


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.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

There's a lot going on in the strata sphere this week, starting with the Sydney Morning Herald's big expose on building defects.

It's well worth reading but it's funny how every time a new reporter writes about this stuff, it's treated as if it's just been discovered.

Speaking as people who have been on this beat for two decades, we are just glad that the issues are being aired again.

Meanwhile strata managers nationally want to know why apartment buildings have been excluded from the multi-billion-dollar boost for solar panel battery storage. By the way, in the podcast we erroneously referred to solar panels, not batteries, as a sharp-eared listener has pointed out.

And we dig into the three-way fight over commission payments between owners (in the shape of the Owners Corporation Network) plus the Australian Consumers Insurance Lobby (ACIL), strata managers, and strata insurers.

That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.

____________________________________________________


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.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.