Surprise, surprise! What started off looking like a barren day on the pod-front, right at the end of the school holidays, turned out to give us a lot to talk about.First of all, there was the fact that apartment rents are rising three times faster than house rents, and what that could mean for inner cities with both tourists and overseas students on their way back in droves.We also touch on the implications of that and what our various governments could and should be doing about all that in this column.Then we discuss a Tenants Union report about the discovery that private rental landlords are taking disputes with tenants to tribunals twice as often as tenants are challenging their landlords, and why that might be.Is it because landlords are more likely to be sinned against than sinners? We don’t think so – it’s a lot more complicated than that.Then we look at why sports and social clubs are queuing up to have their airspace and spare land turned into high-rises. And is it such a bad thing?And finally we ask if it’s OK for strata committees to insist that owners are identified when they make a complaint. Is it a case of victim and whistle-blower naming and shaming?All that and more in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy 00:00One of those days, when we looked at the news, or had to think about the podcast, and thought 'oh, we don't have anything to talk about,' and then we had a quick look and there's actually quite a lot.Sue 00:11It's always the way, isn't it?Jimmy 00:12It always is. So we're going to be talking about how rents are going up. We're talking about tenants and landlords taking each other to NCAT (or not). We're talking about buildings going up above sports clubs, and whether you should be named and blamed, if you complain. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue 00:36And I'm Sue Williams, and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy 00:39And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmySo rents are going up?Sue 00:56Yes, absolutely. So there's new reports coming out, last week, and this week, all about unit rents for the September 2022 quarter. And it's interesting, because house rents are going up hugely and unit rents are going up quite a lot, as well. I mean, as we know, during COVID, lots of people favoured houses, rather than units, but unit rents are really catching up quite quickly.Jimmy 01:18Yes, I heard a bit about it on the radio this morning, and they were saying that a lot of overseas students are coming back, and overseas workers are coming back. But I think they said there was a record number of visa applications from overseas students, wanting to come here.Sue 01:33So that's really going to increase demand for units and so there's going to be even more pressure on rents really, because vacancy rates are already incredibly low. So it's going to be very hard for many people, I think, looking for apartments to rent.Jimmy 01:48Absolutely. I just cast my mind back, to all the stories we had a couple of years ago, about how people would overfill their units; you know, cramming in a dozen students, into the one space. I remember one of the stories was about a studio flat, whic
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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.
