Three big stories get most of our attention in this week’s podcast.

Firstly there’s the publication of the new Guide to Strata Living, which earns some praise, but a few brickbats from JimmyT. You can judge for yourself HERE, where there are also links to the actual guide for you to download.

Then there’s the recent attack on unfair strata management contracts by eminent construction lawyer Bronwyn Weir. And, once you’ve listen to the podcast, you might want to read more about it HERE and HERE (with links to the original ABC news story).

Two years ago, Jimmy wrote that apartment blocks in Victoria were rotting from the inside. Now a report by the strata government’s Cladding Safety Victoria has confirmed that half the buildings they inspected were doing exactly that. You can read about it HERE.

And finally, would you leave a spare key with someone, in case of emergencies? Should it be compulsory? 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 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.

We’ve been catching up with all the strata stories that emerged while we were away – and there’s a lot of them, covering just about every aspect of apartment living.

The plan to boost Sydney’s night time economy with 24/7 bar openings has alarmed well-heeled resident so Circular Quay (according to this video on the Sydney Morning Herald website).

And there’s more angst over noisy gyms which we first highlighted in this podcast and Sue’s SMH story before we left for Europe.

We discuss why strata schemes are way behind free-standing homes when it comes to installing solar, prompted by this story. Does it have something to do with embedded networks and devious developers?

We look at a renewed push to wash away outdated and anti-sustainability by-laws that forbid drying laundry on balconies.

And we wonder if councils could be doing more to encourage the inclusion of creative spaces in new apartment blocks, following this report.

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.

Can you imagine paying $30,000 a night for a pad in London? Yes, that’s thirty thousand dollars, in case you thought it was a misprint.

And this is in a city that has its share of homelessness and has had to introduce a 90-night limit on short-term holiday lets to combat the drain on residential properties caused by platforms like Airbnb and their ilk.

Also in Britain, a government survey has revealed how many previously unidentified apartment blocks still have potentially fatal flammable cladding, more than seven years after the Grenfell disaster.

Meanwhile the contrast in Australian political approaches to the housing shortage – lack of supply or excess of demand – was brought into stark relief by the result of the US presidential election.

One side said it was a failure of investment, the other that it was caused by immigrants.

Spoiler alert: Donald Trump will be back in the White House until J D Vance slips an overdose of moonshine and opiates into his diet Coke then announces he was secretly a liberal all this time.

Seriously though, as we discover, even a socialist republic has trouble building apartments ordinary people can afford (unless you’re Aussie – then they’re a bargain).

This week’s podcast is the last to be recorded on our travels and is a bit shorter than usual, not least because we were cramming the last of our journalistic tasks in between trying to make the most of our dwindling days in France.

Next week we’ll be back to whatever passes for normal in strata.

____________________________________________________


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.