Flat Chat has just returned from Singapore where they know a bit about building lots and lots of apartments for their booming populations – and face many of the same problems we do … only on as bigger scale.
With a population of 5.5 million, most of whom live in strata, they are confronting the same issues with prices out of control, lack of availability (but apartments standing empty) and tenants being exploited.
In Singapore, the government builds subsidised units for let and, just as in Sydney, selfish investors grab what they can to make a profit. They aren’t allowed to re-let subsidised apartments so they lock off a room and say they are only sub-letting the other rooms, not the whole unit.
Meanwhile apartments sit empty while rents and purchase prices go through the roof. Our friend in Singapore pays $370 a week for one room in a shared four-bedroom flat, several train stops from the city centre.
But, of course, they have Airbnb too and 47.5 per cent of their 6,200 listings are whole apartments according to the Airdna.co website.
But enough of the travelogue. Back here in the real world the Forum has been running hot with topics from the trivial to the terrible.
- What’s the best way to replace a strata committee member who, like Elvis, has left the building? THAT’S HERE.
- Can proxy votes be used to establish a quorum at strata committee meetings. THAT’S HERE.
- We all know that 75 per cent of owners can now force the other owners to sell but what decisions in strata still have to be unanimous? THAT’S HERE.
- Can I put a doormat outside my front door on the common property floor? THAT’S HERE.
- Is sending an email or making a phone call to another strata resident and “invasion of privacy”? THAT’S HERE.
- What do you do when a gym opens up downstairs and the strata committee are all fitness freaks? THAT’S HERE.
It’s been a busy, busy week of the Flat Chat Forum and there’s a stack of questions and answers in awaiting your guilty pleasure in knowing someone else is doing it tougher than you.