This week in the podcast we take a long, hard look at the proposals – well advanced, it must be said – for every strata scheme in NSW to register all their vital statistics on the state’s new Strata Hub.What kind of information will they want and why do they want it? And what happens if old Geoff, the rusted-on secretary in Flat 4b, forgets to fill in the form or just doesn't think it applies to your strata scheme .Are there penalties for failure to comply with this Big Brother-like intrusion into our lives? (Yes.) And how much are they? (A lot … plus GST.)NB: By “Big Brother” I mean the state snooping in the novel ‘1984’ by George Orwell, not the imprisonment of wannabe celebrities for our voyeuristic pleasure.And if you think this only applies to NSW, just wait. If it works it'll be coming your way before you know it.Anyway, a couple of minor corrections: You will find all the links to the various portals where you can post your observations and fill in your surveys here in this story on this website.And the fine for not updating your information will be up to $2200 not $2500 as only slightly mis-stated in the podcast.LISTEN HEREMeanwhile, as we emerge from our Covid cloud, it seems we can get back to Australia’s other favourite topic of conversation – apart from the weather – and that’s property prices.And to get your water-cooler chats going (are we allowed to have them yet?) Sue has discovered a city where apartment prices have gone up 25 per cent in the past year. Want to take a guess which one?And finally, we discuss the measures in the new NSW short-term letting registry that should put paid to sneaky tenants sub-letting their apartments without their owners’ knowledge or permission.That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy 00:00Something big is happening in strata, in New South Wales.Sue 00:03Good! Is that a 'good' big, or 'bad' big?Jimmy 00:07That remains to be seen. Fair Trading is creating what they call a 'strata hub,' where they are putting together all the information they can gather about apartment blocks in the state and they're making it compulsory that every strata scheme has to provide a certain amount of information.Sue 00:29Is this coming from the Building Commissioner's office?Jimmy 00:31No, it's coming from, I think, Victor Dominello, who is a bit of a...Sue 00:38Champion of apartments.Jimmy 00:40I was going to say, a data geek.Sue 00:44Maybe, the two coincide, sometimes.Jimmy 00:46We'll be talking about that and we're going to be talking about some strange movements in apartment prices. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue 00:57And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy 01:00And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmyOut of the blue last Friday (as often happens, just before the weekend), Fair Trading dropped a bombshell, which is that they are going to be conducting, initially, discussions leading to legislation... New regulations in strata, requiring strata schemes to, basically file all their details.Sue 01:43Is this out of the blue? I've never heard of this before.Jimmy 01:46Well, apparently, it's phase two of a three phase
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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.
