FLAT CHAT WRAP
All about living in apartments (condos), from dealing with your committee to getting on with neighbours and – a dose of healthy skepticism about dubious developers. Please subscribe by clicking on one of the icons below, to take you to your favourite podcaster.
Episodes
394 episodes
All the strata stats that matter
Did you know that getting on for 4.5 million Australians live in strata? And who do you think comprises the single largest demographic group, from singles and couples through to one-parent families?Can you even take a wild guess at the t...
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Season 8
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Episode 14
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20:51
Defects, solar snub and commissions
There's a lot going on in the strata sphere this week, starting with the Sydney Morning Herald's
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Season 8
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Episode 13
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23:45
Election fever, defects call and rents on the rise
We’d love to ignore the election but we can’t, so this week we look at what our nation’s political parties are offering apartment buyers and renters as we hurtle towards polling day.Everybody agrees we need more housing – and that means ...
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Season 8
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Episode 12
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26:12
Tenants' pets unleashed and flat-finding for a friend
We are getting into two of the topics that cause most angst in apartment living, this week: pets and buying property.Firstly, we take a spin around the question of landlords in NSW no longer being able to ban renters’ pets for no good re...
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Season 8
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Episode 11
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22:32
Strata managers 'not in disarray' says prez
Last week we said that Strata Community Association NSW - the states' strata managers' professional body - was in disarray. Objecting to that negative characterisation, NSW President Robert Anderson agreed to come on to the podcast ...
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Season 8
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Episode 10
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30:24
Five years on, strata pets are here to stay
This week we look back at what has been described by some lawyers as one of the most significant legal decisions of the 21st Century – right up there with Donald Trump’s court losses.We are talking about the “Jo Cooper” decision five yea...
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Season 8
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Episode 9
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25:04
Netstrata: The facts and the frictions
The long-awaited report into what has become known as the Netstrata Scandal came out last week – too late for the podcast – so we bring it to you in all its glory this week.Fair Trading NSW have, unusually for them, hopped in with a fair...
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Season 8
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Episode 8
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24:29
Fast track flats and Airbnb tax
This week’s podcast looks at the renewed concern about the effect of short-term holiday lets on affordable housing, following City of Sydney’s request to the state government
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Season 8
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Episode 7
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23:16
New laws put strata cops on the beat
The podcast this week is almost entirely taken up with the new laws that passed the other day in the NSW parliament. We won’t see most of them kick in until later in the year, but the effects could be immediate.Dodgy contract...
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Season 8
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Episode 6
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22:51
Secretive strata managers face $110k fines
In this week’s podcast we wonder whether the announcement of fines for strata managers who don’t reveal the various deals and relationships they have with developers and service providers signals a sea change in how NSW Fair Trading regards str...
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Season 8
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Episode 5
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22:26
Contract killers - the strata law that's simply ignored
In this week’s podcast we ask why it is that, while the so-called Arrow decision has established that pre-sale strata contracts are invalid, some developers can get away with signing them.As raised by our friend
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Season 8
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Episode 4
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21:55
Strata pantomime villain takes centre stage
It seems strata may have a new pantomime villain (like we need one). This week we look at multi-millionaire developer of fancy pants apartment blocks Tim Gurner.He once shocked an economic conference by saying the country needs 40-...
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Season 8
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Episode 3
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24:57
Economic hogwash, strata dog wash
With half of Australia still in holiday or hangover mode, and half of Sydney stuck on a railway platform somewhere, this is a short and (we hope) sweet Flat Chat Wrap podcast this week.First, we look at a new trend in affordable and comf...
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Season 8
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Episode 2
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17:31
Fast-track for flats puts Nimbys on notice
We are back in the saddle for the new year with the news that the NSW government has come up with a new way of tackling the bureaucracy and red tape that’s holding back housing construction – by adding what looks like another level of bureaucra...
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Season 8
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Episode 1
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16:24
Plusses and perils of strata in 2025
Looking forward to 2025 involves a certain amount of looking back. So we wonder this week what will happen, if anything, as a result of the long-delayed outcomes of investigations into Netstrata in particular or strata management in general.&nb...
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Season 7
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Episode 50
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24:09
Strata's naughty and nice in 2024
From the scandals around Netstrata - and the harsh scrutiny all strata managers have faced as a consequence - to the departure of Building Commissioner David Chandler, 2024 was a huge year in strata.We look at those events as well as the ro...
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Season 7
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Episode 49
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24:32
Sins of commission - why Minns has quit
This week we say farewell to former Strata Commissioner John Minns who has decided to quit, despite a months-long inquiry into allegations of conflict of interest finding nothing untoward.Jimmy had a long chat with him (off air) which he...
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Season 7
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Episode 48
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26:43
Strata law changes, sliced and diced
Our deadlines meant we missed the chance to talk about the new strata laws proposed for NSW in last week’s podcast but that has given us time to think about the proposals and what they mean.For instance, is compulsory training of strata ...
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Season 7
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Episode 47
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24:39
Triple threat: Guide gaps, dodgy contracts and rotting blocks
Three big stories get most of our attention in this week’s podcast.Firstly there’s the publication of the new Guide to Strata Living, which earns some praise, but a few brickbats from JimmyT. You can judge for yourself
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Season 7
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Episode 46
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25:03
Noise annoys as city wakes up to 24-hour bars and gyms
We’ve been catching up with all the strata stories that emerged while we were away – and there’s a lot of them, covering just about every aspect of apartment living.The plan to boost Sydney’s night time economy with 24/7 bar openings has...
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Season 7
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Episode 45
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22:13
Talk about unaffordable - the $30k-a-night apartment
Can you imagine paying $30,000 a night for a pad in London? Yes, that’s thirty thousand dollars, in case you thought it was a misprint.And this is in a city that has its share of homelessness and has had to introduce a 90-night limit on ...
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Season 7
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Episode 44
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13:13
London calling with renters' advice, unit prices and a high-rise tragedy
Your intrepid Flat Chat team’s travels take them to London this week but that doesn’t mean they have lost touch with what’s happening in Australia.For a start a boost to funding for tenants’ supports agencies has been announced by the NS...
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Season 7
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Episode 43
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23:32
New commissioner named, Netstrata dodge exposed
This week’s podcast comes to you from less-than-sunny Glasgow, which may explain the slightly different sound quality.But the chat is up to its usual standards as we speculate on what
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Season 7
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Episode 42
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22:58
Pumping irony - Airbnb on defensive, pro gym offensive
There are so many issues it strata that are “he said, she said” - or “they said, they said”, to put it in a more contemporary context – that the temptation to not take sides is sometimes overwhelming.But consider the plight of an o...
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Season 7
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Episode 41
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28:14