If you have a hankering for the high life and have a lazy $22 million lying around, you could score an apartment in the huge Crown tower above James Packer’s (currently non-functioning) casino.If that’s too rich for your blood, how much would you expect to pay for a two-bed, two-bath pad on a lower floor? All is revealed in our Flat Chat Wrap podcast this week.But before we get to that, there’s the small matter of how data mining is going to lead to a trebling of the number of apartment blocks under construction that will fall under the critical glare of NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler.Listen HereAs this story explains, Fair Trading is planning to dig into its accumulated data to find out which certifiers have historically signed off on the most problematic buildings, then reverse engineer that to find out which buildings under construction those certifiers are now connected with.That will trigger a visit from someone from the Building Commissioner’s office who will start tapping tiles and probing plaster to see how well or badly this building has been constructed.Then we get to the issue of the high cost of buying into Sydney’s tallest apartment block, the Crown Tower at Barangaroo.Yes, an apartment changed hands for $22m recently but there are others there that are a lot cheaper … okay, a bit cheaper.The we look at the new 899-unit apartment complex proposed for Campbelltown and discuss the issues confronting owners in separate strata schemes that are also part of a larger scheme sharing some facilities.And finally, Jimmy answers a question asked by Sue last week – will the big insurers ever come back and cover the construction of apartment block over three storeys high.That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.Transcript In FullJimmy 0:00Big news on the defects front, Sue?Sue 0:02Yes, absolutely. The New South Wales Government is acting to start auditing a lot more buildings than they usually do (and they have been doing over the last six months).Jimmy 0:11Okay, because we saw that report last week about how a huge percentage of defective buildings were certified by like, six different certifiers.Sue 0:23That's right; about a third of risky buildings, by the same six repeat-offending certifiers.Jimmy 0:30We're going to be talking about that; we're going to be talking about a big new development and I'm going to be answering a question that Sue asked last week (and I went off-track, and answered a completely different one). I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue 0:50And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy 1:09And this is the Flat Chat Wrap. [MUSIC]JimmyJust as we were about to sit down and record this podcast, a press release came in from New South Wales Fair Trading, Sue, and it's big news.Sue 1:20That's right. Kevin Anderson, the Minister for Better Regulation, has launched a data-led audit regime to target the state's high-risk building certifiers and triple the number of buildings to come under scrutiny by the building regulator.Jimmy 1:34What sort of numbers are we talking about?Sue 1:36Well, at the moment, there's a pre-occupational certificate audit regime, and they target
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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.
