With two major chunks of strata legislation landing last week – Victoria’s new laws and NSW’s proposals for a revamp of theirs – we pick the bones out of the plans and read their entrails for signs of what’s in store in the future.As usual, there are a few significant changes plus much tinkering around the edges, in both areas, but it’s what the perceived need for these new laws reveals that’s most interesting.How cosy are the developers and strata managers of Victoria? How many kickbacks and from how many sources do the latter enjoy? And how many loopholes in the law will Victoria need to close before dodgy developers are driven out?We also touch on how a lack of a strong owners’ and residents’ voice in Victoria (like its northern neighbour’s Owners Corporation Network) has left that state’s legislation, frankly, years behind NSW’s laws.And on that subject, in the case of the 139 items in the NSW review, we ask how soon can we expect to see those proposals become a reality and what will the process be to get there?Elsewhere in the podcast we look at a new trend in high-end hotel-style apartments, where you can order everything from room service to theatre tickets from your concierge.And we discuss the message from the AFR Property Summit that counters the doom and gloom about apartment prices.Finally, a reminder that the OCN’s Strata Matters seminar is on, on Thursday 9th, hosted by Jimmy and with a guest appearance by Sue (oh, and David Chandler will be there too).There was a handful of extra tickets newly released on Tuesday. You can try to nab one or sign up to follow us on live streaming via this link.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy 00:00I just checked our figures for the podcast. So, nearly 26,000 people have listened to it, so far.Sue 00:09Well, that's quite intimidating!Jimmy 00:12I should say, it has been listened to 25,000 times, rather than 25,000 people, but we suddenly got a jump in the number of listeners, just a couple of months ago.Sue 00:24Really, why is that, do you think?Jimmy 00:25I have no idea, but I wonder if it was the pandemic, or people just passing it on, or something. Anyway, we now have twice as many people listening to the podcast per week, as we had at the same time last year.Sue 00:41That's fantastic!Jimmy 00:42So, it's roughly about 200, a week and as somebody said, if that doesn't sound like much, imagine if you were organising a meeting, every week and every week, 200 people turned up. You would be quite pleased with that.Sue 00:58That's fantastic. I think it shows that people are getting more and more interested in apartment living, aren't they, really? More people are moving into apartments and they're curious, and they want to avoid problems. They want to know a bit more about the politics.Jimmy 01:10And maybe, they like listening to you.Sue 01:12No, I don't think so. Maybe you!Jimmy 01:15Not at all! Anyway, this week, we are going to be talking about the new laws that have just come in in Victoria, the proposals for new laws in New South Wales, and you've got a couple of items?Sue 01:28Yes. The AFR had its property summit this week, which was really interesting. They had a big section on residential property, which was
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Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.
