Investors make more on Airbnb, says new report
Property investors – especially in strata buildings – should switch to holiday rentals instead of long-term tenancies if they want to maximise their profits, says the founder of a…
apartment
Roundup: How big a deal is the size of your unit?
Of all the things you might have to sacrifice to be able to afford an apartment to buy or rent, how far down the list would size rate? Less important…
ROUNDUP: We are flat-dwellers – hear us roar!
Did you know we are a whole new tribe, we flat-dwellers? According to this story in the Sydney Morning Herald we, as a group, have different attitudes from the rest…
How to avoid buying a high-rise lemon
Flat Chat is now appearing in the Australian Financial Review, both in print and online at weekends. This is the first column in its new home. With recent revelation that…
Airbnb and the battle for your blocks
In an exclusive five-part series Jimmy Thomson examines spectacular growth of short-stay letting in our cities’ most popular areas and the affect that has on rents, house prices and, especially,…
Apartment gripes – an obsessive responds
It’s always a bit disappointing when you read the same old anti-apartment prejudices trotted out … especially when it comes from a colleague (albeit in a light-hearted vein).. Am I too…
Redefining off-the-plan rorts
Here are a few new definitions for your strata dictionaries: Sunset clawbacks: Where a developer in a ‘hot’ market allows a project to over-run its “build-by” date, uses the sunset clause…
Are strata dwellers being sold out?
Are we long-term strata dwellers being treated – yet again – as second-class citizens? Last week, submissions into the review of strata laws in NSW closed, with the hottest topic…
Loophole could let pets off the leash
Want to share your space with an animal in a pet-free building? Just get your doctor to sign a letter saying you need it for “assistance”. That seems to be…