If Bogota has Bike Sharing, Why not Sydney?

I'm a cyclist and believe that bikes are an important part of a modern city's transport options.

So, reading about the latest international major bike sharing scheme for Bogota, Columbia in This Big City, made me wonder why we don't have one in Sydney when it seems to me perfectly suited to the city's needs

You might be surprised that Wikipedia lists 535 bike sharing schemes in 49 countries around the world with a total of 517,000 bicycles.  That's a lot of pedalling by a lot of people in a lot places (except Sydney).

And, although many bike sharing schemes are in places where cycling is more prevalent, cultural differences are not the answer since even car loving California has bike sharing in 5 different cities.  Nor is city size the determinant, as Melbourne is smaller but has Melbourne Bike Share and Brisbane is even smaller and has City Cycle.

Some commentators say its because of our bike helmet laws.  http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/fitness/blogs/on-your-bike/share-bike-schemes-need-to-lose-the-lids-20120920-267wg.html but is that seriously a reason not to have bike sharing?

I'm looking forward to being able to hire a bike to ride from Bondi Junction station to Bronte beach for a coffee one Sunday and avoid the problem of trying to find a parking spot.


Francesco ...

Help Needed for 'off the plan' Strata Buyers

In Australia (unlike many other parts of the world) a lot of residential strata apartments are developed and sold using an 'off the plan' sales method where buyers contract to buy before construction and complete purchases when the building is finished.

And, as far as I can see, 'off the plan' strata sales are here to stay and will remain the predominant way to buy new strata apartments in Australia.

Whilst this approach helps developers fund the development and lowers prices for buyers, it also has some pitfalls for everyone involved because it relies on assumptions about the future and can be affected by unexpected changes in personal, business and economic conditions.

So, buyers need to take extra care and be better informed when buying an 'off the plan' strata apartment.  

There's plenty of information for buyers from an investment, amenity and finance perspective like this recent booklet produced by Property Observer and Frasers.  However, when you look at that booklet closely, there's nothing at all in there about important strata title issues that will affect buyers and could lead to future strata disappointments.  

That got me looking at the results of a google search for 'buying off the plan strata apartments' to see what did exist on the subject in Australia with the following outcomes.

The NSW Fair Trading webpage on buying off the plan has a few lines of information about unit entitlements, exclusive use by-laws and building management comments plus a link to their more general information about buying into a strata scheme (which is actually pretty good).

Our old superhero friend, Strataman talks briefly about levies, lot sizes, restrictions on facility use and by-laws.  Plus Strataman provides links to other (more or less) useful webpages.

The Strata Community Australia website has short article which raises issues about strata manager appointment (and perceptions of conflicts of interest), first AGMs and defects.

Findlaw chooses to identify defects, by-laws and unit entitlement allocations as the key strata issues for off the plan buyers at their webpage.

The NSW Law Society Guide to Buying a Home identifies participation in the strata corporation, levies, by-laws and common property maintenance as the key strata issues.

And, Housenet's webpage only refers to Home Building Act insurance requirements.

So, when the available information is pretty limited, basic and incomplete, It's no wonder first time strata owners don't know much. 

I suppose there isn't a lot of incentive for developers, financiers and sales agents (who don't understand strata issues  and/or worry that giving too much strata information will scare off buyers) to provide more.  But, it can't be too hard to put together better material for strata buyers about the membership of the strata corporation and it's role, budgets and levies, by-laws and other restrictions, meetings and how strata and building managers work.

Regardless of the reasons why, it's a sad state of affairs that we have such limited publicly valuable information in relation to the predominant form of future property ownership and housing in Australia.


Francesco ...

Surrealism Meets Strata in Melbourne

I wanted to call this blog 'Imagine Salvador Dali in Your Strata Building' as I couldn't think of anything more incongruous than the master of surrealism having to operate within the confines and formalities of strata title laws.

But the world has changed and we all want to live in an imagined surreal existence (no matter how sanitised).  And you could do that in this surrealist inspired Melbourne strata building.

It's located at the corner of Eastern Road and Palmerston Crescent, South Melbourne, was developed by Arno Corporation, has 48 apartments and was inspired by Anish Kapoor's Sky Dish sculpture in NYC's Rockefeller Centre.

You can read more about this property at the Melbourne Review and SMH Domain.

Its my kind of strata living.

Francesco ...

NCCARF Continues Climate Change Research

In 2012 and 2013 I was involved with Griffith University on a National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility research project about the impacts of climate change on stakeholders in Australian strata title buildings.  

That's now finished and the reports can be found in my other blogs on this site or at the Strata Climate Change blog.  But, the work being done by NCCARF on climate change adaptation issues continues.

You can follow NCCARF activities, latest research, conferences and more here.



Francesco ...