We cover a lot of ground in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap, starting with the surprising news that new apartments are getting bigger while houses are getting smaller. Is it all about downsizing and empty nesters?
Or did we never really need all that space to begin with? You’ll never guess where the largest new apartments are … and Jimmy wonders what a rumpus room really is.
Also in the podcast, we hop into Building Commissioner David Chandler about apartment purchasers and “buyer beware”. Sue (Williams) is furious and Jimmy calls it “victim blaming”.
It seems the government has just parked the whole problem of defects, and cladding for that matter, passing the buck to the people at the bottom who have no choice but to cop it sweet and pay for other people’s mistakes.
At least the future looks brighter for apartment quality … until the government’s mates water down the legislation to cut down on “red tape”.
And finally, we look at what’s going on with Airbnb. They have taken a few hits in the past week or two but Sue reckons the one that will hurt most is the announcement that the Tax Office is planning to target holiday let tax cheats – short-term letting hosts who haven’t declared their additional earnings or have claimed too much against tax for the costs of running their ‘business’.
We reckon the threat of the tax man is more of a worry to STHL hosts than all the by-laws, tribunals and three-strikes codes of conduct combined.
And finally, we have new theme music and stings. It’s a bit rockier and stronger, because we plan to be a lot tougher on slack politicians, dodgy developers and bad neighbours from here on in. Let us know what you think
If you want to subscribe to the Flat Chat Wrap and get new episodes as soon as they are posted (it’s completely free!), click on this link for iPHONE and IPAD and this one for Youtube. You can also subscribe on Castbox or here on Spotify. And if you like the podcasts, please share with a friend, (especially in strata) and leave us a rating – it helps people to find us.
