Housing in Australia – It’s not just the Shortage
We certainly have a problem in Australia with housing. It is not just that there is a major shortage of homes, with increasing homelessness and problems with affordability. It is the quality of buildings too. Australian Housing Building Standards need to improve.
My father, who was a building inspector in the 1960-1990s found that many of the builders then were taking short cuts. He was only involved in building single storied houses in those days. It was the culture of builders that concerned him. “Near enough is good enough” was perhaps the slogan of the time. And the corruption within the industry in those days was well known in the field. He took up a new job in the mid-1960s. Then he found that his predecessor accepted payment from the builders. He “approved” the building, even if it wasn’t done correctly. He was on the payroll of the builders!
Opal Towers Disaster
It was on Xmas Eve, 2018, that huge cracks appeared in the Opal Towers Building in Sydney. Months later owners are still not able to access the building. People paid huge amounts of money for their units in this huge complex only to learn that it is in a bad state of repair. This report from June this year may help readers understand the situation. Click here.
It is a huge problem and until housing building standards improved there will be a lot more issues such as this.
Rental Property Building Standards
I’ve learned in recent years with my experience in rental properties, about the short cuts made. To me, it is all about greed. The profits are all people in the industry are interested in.
As a tenant on and off over most of my recent life, I learned how difficult it was to get the landlord/owner to do repairs, essential ones even. I have had many an issue with real estate agents too. Clearly, they had more interest in keeping the property owners happy than the tenants.
It is often easy to see short cuts in the building. I have been in two brand new buildings and while one only had minor issues, the last one has a raft of problems. It is clear to me that the latter one was build only for the profit of the builders, and I have no doubt that the people who bought units in the property, will soon regret their decisions.
It’s Not Just Opal Towers
As time goes on, more buildings are being “outed” as poorly built. Check out this story here.
Buyers beware is the message right now in Australia.