March 2010

Just as some apartment developments are being tweaked to make them pet friendly, are we about to see a new breed in Australia of "kid friendly" high rises? Or are developers missing the boat?

As our cities grow larger and our population continues to increase at double the rate of the rest of the world, it's clear that more of us will be living in high rises. We often talk about the "death of the quarter-acre block" in hushed tones that sound like we've lost someone and should be holding a funeral. Apartments have long been referred to as places you are "forced into", as if a little bit sinful, only for the down trodden. Especially where there are kids involved.

Sydney is about to have an emotional legislative debate about property rights. This is because ageing strata developments are deemed by the development industry to be decaying time bombs.

Strata title law has no easy mechanism to allow for their redevelopment, and developers have expressed their frustrations since the days of the former NSW premier Bob Carr.

One owner can thwart the plans of everyone else.

The Keneally government envisages legislation by June, which will establish a development authority with sweeping powers to compulsorily acquire privately owned property for resale to developers.

Apartment owners in NSW are being reminded to check that their building insurance covers the total cost of rebuilding should a disaster occur. The Institute of Strata Title Management (ISTM) and CHU, Australia‟s leading strata insurance company, warned that most policy holders won‟t find out they are underinsured until it‟s too late.