In this week’s podcast we are going to discuss the local council that’s going to pay someone $100,000 a year to help residents fight high rise developments.It’s the least developed suburb in Sydney, so do they really need someone to take up cudgels against developers? According to this story in the Sydney Morning Herald, the move was triggered by a proposal – approved by the NSW's Eastern City Planning Panel – to knock down four terraces and build two 10-storey residential “towers” at the corner of Syd Einfeld Drive, Oxford Street and York Road in Bondi Junction.We ask, are their nimbys too namby-pamby to do it themselves? Or is it reasonable to have a council-funded champion for the urban dwellers who don’t want to live in or near high-rises?Talking of champions, we discuss the possibility of NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler changing his mind about retiring in November and ask whether the government would have him back (we have a definitive answer to that!)Sue looks at areas where apartment prices have not only defied the general plunge in property values but have actually gone up in price.And we put her on the spot with a couple of curly questions from the Forum. All that and more in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy 00:00You're back from Africa?Sue 00:01Yes, I am; back, just a few minutes ago and you've pulled me into the podcast, immediately. Thank you, Jimmy!Jimmy 00:07While you're still awake. As usual, when I started off thinking we didn't have much to talk about, we do. Waverley Council has decided that it's NIMBYs are too namby-pamby...Sue 00:22And it's helping the NIMBYs, isn't it, really?Jimmy 00:26Yes, they want to help the NIMBYs. We've got kind of an update (a bit), on David Chandler. We've got new figures on where apartment prices are going up and where they're coming down. And we're going to dip into the forum again, with a couple of fairly odd questions. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue 00:47And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy 00:50And this is the Flat Chat Wrap. MUSICJimmyYou probably can't hear this, because we have all sorts of noise filters operating, but it is blowing an absolute gale outside.Sue 01:17It's not very nice to come home to, I must say.Jimmy 01:19I'm glad you were on the ground before this hit. It would have been a bit of a bumpy landing.Sue 01:24Especially because I couldn't work out how to do up my seatbelt.Jimmy 01:27Oh really? That's because you were at the posh end of the plane, for once.Sue 01:31I flew business class. I mean, I didn't pay for it; somebody else paid for it. But yes, they put a mattress down over your seat when you pull your seat down, and then it kind of covers the seatbelt. I couldn't work out what to do and the steward came along and pulled out another seat belt, which kind of straps across your body, from your shoulder downwards, like a car seat belt. I couldn't find the other end and I was too embarrassed to ask really, because I seemed so stupid; you know, 'business class newbie.' I was just hoping that it wasn't going to be rocky coming down, because otherwise, I would have
____________________________________________________
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.
