Don’t be put off by a tinkle or two of classical music at the start of this week’s podcast. It’s just a small acknowledgement of the fact that we are in Warsaw, where Polish-born piano master composer Frederic Chopin was raised.

What do Warsaw and Gdansk have to do with apartments? Heaps as it turns out. Having been flattened by the Nazis during the Warsaw uprising of 1944, the city was completely restored to its former glory by Soviet overlords after WWII.

And you can take a guess at what the reward was for outstanding contributions to the project, whether it was as an architect or a bricklayer.

A couple of hours north in Gdansk, the shipyards made famous by union leader and eventually president Lech Walesa are mostly silent now. But there are still cranes sweeping the skyline – only now they are building apartments rather than boats.

Closer to home we examine the result of wayward strata manager Whitney Wang’s appeal against having his licence cancelled.

And we look at the pile of money it took to by Australia’s most expensive property -almost as high as the building in which it sits.

That’s all in this weeks’ Flat Chat Wrap (although Jimmy can’t believe he didn’t describe Warsaw as a Chopin centre). Enjoy.

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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.

This week we’ve taken the podcast overseas as we’re recording on a cruise ship off the coast of Norway.

But it gives us an opportunity to look at one of the vexed questions of living in strata in Australia.

You may not know this but there is already one city in Australia that has rent controls. Do they work? Do they keep rents low or just set a benchmark for rent hikes at every opportunity.

We take advantage of a stop-over in Amsterdam to find out how rent controls work there – where 45 per cent of the population are tenants – and do they solve the housing problems that it too suffers?

And we take a look at the strangest “hotel” rooms in the world and what our cities might be like if everyone rode bikes. 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.

Last week Sue dropped a bomb into a discussion about new strata laws in NSW, one of which will invalidate by-laws that block sustainability changes because they would alter the look of the building.

Does this mean the end of by-laws that forbid drying laundry on balconies? Surely not using a tumble dryer and instead using the wind and sun is a sustainability issue?

And, if it is, doesn't that mean, at the very least, out-of-date laundry bans can be changed with a simple majority, meaning that a no-laundry minority of 25 per cent can't veto change.

This week we look at the new laws and the current model by-laws and ask if the government hasn't inadvertently started a war between NOOOBs (Not On Our Balconies) and Greenies.

And speaking of wars, we also look at a new book about missing anti-development activist Juanita Nielsen which suggests her campaigns to halt unfettered high-rise developments, and her disappearance 50 years ago next month, may have led to the current housing crisis.

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.