Travels etc.

StrataBoss  has got a feature allowing to notify your strata manager after you have identified who is responsible to rectify a problem in your strata unit. The email will contain the information from the web site that will help the strata manager, executive committee and yourself as an owner to proceed with problem rectification. This feature will save your time informing the strata manager and relevant people to get problem solved as soon as possible. Check it out !  

Almost 8 months passed from the time of previous post and here's how the owners corporations activities looked like to "resolve" the defects/problems: 1. Independent inspection report was ordered and completed 1st June 2015. The report confirmed the defects that were known to owners corporation already. It should be noted that in the period between December 2014 and June 2015 the only attempts by owners corporation to resolve the issues were to convince the lot owner that it's the owner's personal responsibility. Therefore half a year gone with a couple of meetings only, because people were "on holidays", "busy" etc. 2. Between 3rd July 2015 and end of July 2015 the strata manager spent "contacting the builders for quotes". Until owner called the strata manager nothing have happend. 3. By the end of August 2015 all quotes were in place. The meeting of all owners was set up for the 7th October! Because as usual "holid...

There is no surprise that amid property price growth in Australia (especially in Sydney) some people would be interested in explaining the reasons of it. Beyond market conditions (demand higher than supply, low interest rates, higher income than many other places) there is also a tendency to blame foreign investors in influence on the property prices. I have personally heard sentiments about this from persons who couldn't afford to buy property for themselves to live. For some it is possibly easy to mark people who they see as competitors on the property market as foreigners. As an illustration you might consider this quote: ... I think it is hard to deny. If you imagine an auction on a weekend where you throw in an extra buyer who is willing to pay a little bit more than everyone else there, if that buyer happens to be foreign, maybe as a temporary resident, and they are buying the single place that they are able to get approval for, it is hard to deny that it would not p...

During my recent visit to Art Gallery of NSW this painting drew my attention. It depicts the exchange of the land for cloth. I wouldn't start a discussion now about the fairness of this deal - first of all it is all history and second as a matter of fact this type of deals fits very well into the marketing and wealth building concepts that are promoted everywhere. However I researched this subject a bit and found that this painting is not the only one about this historical event. 01. The first one was  Treaty of Penn with Indians by Benjamin West That work, it appears, influenced Edward Hicks and other artists to create multiple paintings of the same event. The difference is in details: 02. 03. 04. 05. This image is from  AllPosters.com 06. 07. A 19th-century lithograph by Currier & Ives By the way, William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania . He ...

Awesome news: http://smh.domain.com.au/real-estate-news/nsw-strata-law-revolution-20131103-2wuy4.html It is apparent to anyone who lives in a strata unit that the current issues are serious and it should be something done about it at a legislation level. I have written about some of the existing problems sometime ago  http://traveloga.blogspot.com/2013/05/real-estate-strata-living.html In the course of new laws to be implemented, how they are going to enforce builders or developers responsibility? Will see.

Property in New York anyone? Tommy Hilfiger is selling apartment at the Plaza in New York: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-22/hilfiger-lists-new-york-s-plaza-penthouse-for-80-million.html

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics ( http://abs.gov.au ) in 2011 (census data can be found here: http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/0?opendocument&navpos=220 ), there were around 2.8 million people who lived in a flat, apartment or unit, which can be classified as "strata living". This number can be a bit higher at the moment, but still represents more than 10% of the population. Strata living rules ( http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/Tenants_and_home_owners/Strata_schemes.html ) that supposed to make communal living of people in NSW more streamlined and easier and to help resolve problems if required, in fact leave a lot of space for corruption, various issues, including loss of property value, defects, conflicts and confusion. However it would be short-sighted to just review the strata living rules in isolation from the way people tend to live here, from Australian laws and enforcement and the reality of ...