Category Archives: Strata
Strata Managers help Ronald
The strata managers and administration team are pleased to announce their support for Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Business Development Manager Jeremy Stone said “We are pleased to be involved with a charity that give so much to sick kids and their families when they need it most”.
For more information about Ronald McDonald House see their website at www.rmhc.org.au
ABS house prices (December Qtr) 5.2% qoq, 13.6% yoy
Through the course of last year, officials continually raised concerns about the potential for house price inflation. As recently as August last year, RBA Governor Stevens stated “a very real challenge in the near term is …to ensure that the ready availability and low cost of housing finance is translated into more dwellings, not just higher prices…[and] if we fail to do that – if all we end up with is higher prices and not many more dwellings – then it will be very disappointing, indeed quite disturbing.”
While the various house price measures have produced different outcomes for the December quarter, the overall message is the same – house price inflation in 2009 exceeded 10%. Clearly, the increase in supply has been insufficient to compensate for the strength of demand.
Among the capital cities, during the December quarter, prices grew the fastest in Melbourne, rising 6.8% during the quarter; an annual rate of 19.7%. Sydney house prices grew 5% over the same time period, an increase of 12.8% on the previous year, while Brisbane prices improved 3.8% in the December quarter and 10.9% over the year. Perth prices rose 5.7%, up 11.5% on a year earlier. Only in Adelaide is annual price inflation less the 10%, up only 5.1% annually.
Insights
With property prices rising and interest rates doing likewise, housing affordability is continuing to erase the improvement it achieved through to the first half of 2009. This much is inevitable.
Looking forward, first home buyer demand is set to ease back further which, on the face of it, should lead to a reduction in price pressures. However, despite this and the increase in housing supply which has taken place, a significant and growing under-supply of dwellings exists among the states.
Placed in perspective, it would take three years of current housing production simply to eradicate the current shortfall in NSW, one year of production to remove the shortfall in Victoria and slightly under a year’s production to do the same in WA. In light of this, and with the population continuing to grow at a rapid pace and the labour market strengthening, the demand pressures for dwellings look set to remain acute.
This suggests single income first home buyers will increasingly be priced out of the housing market and, as a consequence, more offspring will remain living at home with parents for longer. This may result in the move towards smaller and smaller (more affordable) housing which has its limitations, as household size looks set to reverse the long-run trend and increase. The deterioration in housing affordability and significant under-supply of new housing also points to greater demand for rental accommodation.
Prepared by Property Insights
Strata hold-outs forced to sell under new plan
INDIVIDUAL apartment owners could be forced to sell their units to a developer if three-quarters of the other owners in their building want to do so, under a proposal from the Australian Property Council. The council, which represents developers and large property owners, says strata title laws give too much power to individual owners, who can block the redevelopment even if every other title holder in the building wants to bring in the bulldozers.
The council says many of the state’s 65,000 strata buildings are dilapidated and need redevelopment to cope with population growth. However, it says the process is being held back by a handful of owners. It has released a policy paper recommending that strata title laws be changed so that if 75 per cent of owners in a strata title building vote to demolish and rebuild, they can override any opposition.
The proposal has drawn support from strata managers and the Owners Corporation Network. The Planning Minister, Tony Kelly, said he would give it careful consideration. ”The minister will be meeting with the Property Council of Australia next week and will discuss the details of their proposal,” a spokesman for Mr Kelly said. The Government promised in its 2005 Metropolitan Strategy to investigate reforming strata laws to encourage housing redevelopment. But it has made no changes, fearing that it will be accused of removing owners’ rights. The Property Council accused the Government of dragging its feet on the issue. ”A quarter of everyone in NSW owns, lives or works in a strata title building,” the acting executive director of the council’s NSW arm, Glenn Byres, said. ”But no serious review has taken place, no policy agenda has been promoted and no legislated solution is in place.”
A strata lawyer, Stephen Goddard, said he had acted for the owners of a unit block in Cronulla who had been prevented from developing their dilapidated building because an elderly owner refused to sell. ”The building is 50 years old, well past its best and definitely not the best use of the property,” Mr Goddard said. ”But because just one of the 16 owners – an 80-year-old woman who is refusing to leave because she has convinced herself that she’ll die if she does – is refusing to sell, everyone is stuck there while the whole block gradually falls to the ground.”
The chief executive of the Institute of Strata Title Management, Richard Holloway, said changing the laws would inevitably leave some people feeling disenfranchised. ”People don’t want to leave – they will say ‘I want to live the rest of my life in the area that I know’,” he said. The Property Council has proposed a range of measures to safeguard the rights of owners, including independent valuations for owners not wanting to participate in the redevelopment and the establishment of a strata schemes commissioner to oversee the process.
PAUL BIBBY URBAN AFFAIRS
January 16, 2010 Sydney Morning Herald
The late Larry Quayle
Netstrata was sadly informed of the passing of Mr Larry Quayle; Larry was the Strata Division Manager at Austbrokers Insurance.
Larry suffered a Heart Attack on Tuesday 15/12, after which he was placed in an induced coma. Larry sadly was not able to recover from this & passed away on the morning of Saturday 19/12/2009.
Larry had arranged thousands of quotes for us over the years and with over 40 years experience what Larry didn’t know about strata insurance claims wasn’t worth knowing. Larry was a great person and a true professional and will be missed by all.
Our thoughts are with Larry’s family and the staff of Austbrokers Sydney at this sad time.
Netstrata celebrate the end of a busy year
The Netstrata team had their final staff meeting for 2009 today… We reviewed our performance for the year, and previewed the innovations to be implemented in 2010, to further streamline our approach to successful strata management …. To celebrate our achievements and hard work we enjoyed a fantastic lunch which included Fresh Seafood …
The opportunity was also taken to exchange Kris Kringle Presents…
A special thanks to Liesl Biles, Sarah Tickner & Christine Ashfield-Howell for organising this event…
Some of the salads prepared…. With or without Fetta?
Some fresh Prawns for hungry strata managers….
And of course desert…
Sarah Tickner one of our lunch organisers relaxing with little Chloe…. Check our staff pages in 2030 for more info on Chloe….
We wish all our clients and contractors a safe and happy Christmas and a fantastic New Year… We look forward to working with you in 2010….
Netstrata rises to the challenge
Netstrata welcomes the owners of “The Dennison” in Dulwich Hill, a mixed residential and commercial development comprising 97 lots. The scheme was recently taken over from another managing agent and is now being managed by Liesl Biles of our office. Liesl said ” I am looking forward to working with the committee to get better value out of their current strata levies and am in the process of reviewing all owners corporations contracts and expenditure”…
Netstrata looks forward to providing the owners of “The Dennison” with professional and proactive Strata Management.
Putting management back into strata & community title communities
Netstrata has a unique approach to the management of strata & community title property. The approach is based on knowing our clients properties. We encourage our managers to get out on the road to visit the properties that they manage (up to 4 site inspections per annum are included within our standard management).
Having a working knowledge of our clients schemes helps us to manage our properties better, saving our owners time and money.
Jeremy Stone and Andrew Tunks attended a site tour of the hugely popular Haven Homes Community Association at Braemont Kellyville Ridge… The purpose to get to know the development…
The mercury was hitting high 30’s and that pool sure looked good…
ISTM – CPD training
Peter Sawell, Jessie Middleton and Emily Goodreid of Netstrata attended the Institute of Strata Title Managements (ISTM) Continuing Professional Development Course in Chatswood today.
The course provided a greater insight into the world of Strata Management Statements & Building Management Committees: the documents and bodies governing part strata schemes. The course was presented by ISTM guru Richard Holloway and as always was very informative and entertaining.
Peter said “the seminar was a great opportunity to share experiences with other managers in the industry…. and as a result I have come away with some extra ideas to share with my team to help manage these schemes more effectively”
This type of titling is becoming more and more popular in NSW and is best described as a vertical form of subdivision, for example where there is a building with shops down the bottom and apartments on top, both the shops and the apartments can be completely separate strata schemes running as any stand alone strata scheme would. Just with an extra management tier being the Building Management Committee a committee comprising a member from both the shop and apartment strata schemes.
It is the committee’s responsibility with the help of their strata manager to run and pay for the operation of the facilities which are shared between the two i.e. the basement car park (if there is one). The way these facilities are managed is set out within the Strata Management Statement registered with the schemes.
Netstrata goes live
On behalf of the Board of Directors we are proud to launch to you, our new business name Netstrata!
Our re-brand represents a streamlining of our identity which reflects our strategic approach we have to the management of strata & community title property.
As an organisation we are constantly streamlining our management processes, this being done through the training and our embracement of the latest technologies assisting us in becoming more efficient allowing our strata management team more time to focus on the core aspects of managing our client schemes.
We trust that you enjoy our new site. Be sure to bookmark this site and check back for important updates.
Kind Regards,
Stephen Brell – Managing Director
