Mascot Tower apartment evacuation

@Perp , these kinds of apartments are a dime a dozen and even without any defects, will likely see big drops in value with the way the market is going. Add in building defects and there is really no reason for a sane person to purchase one without a massive discount. If I was living there and had no other assets, I'd probably do the same as that buyer. There needs to be far more oversight and accountability (as well as a real business case to begin with) before these types of developments are even approved.

 

With the number of apartments that have gone up over the past decade, we have had Opal and now Mascot. In the scheme of things, that is not a large number. I would say it's quite good. I recently sold my high rise apartment and then started looking at the older walk ups. It was a very unpleasant experience. The entry way common area carpet was so disgusting. Dirt, rubbish and just parts of the building were not being fixed. With the newer buildings under 15 years old, they have money to fix and clean everything while smaller 30 year old blocks are more conservative with less money in the pool.


If we look at Mascot, Wolli Creek and Zetland, people like living in modem new places with lifts and rubbish shoots and cleaners going round cleaning everything etc. There is no shortage of demand for renting in these areas. They all enjoy living close to the train station and getting to work door to door within 30 mins. Some people say moving out a bit further etc, but they don’t want to move out a bit further.They happy with the newish modem apartments and enjoy living close to the city

 

No shortage of rental demand, agreed.

To buy? Hmm.

 

Yes people like living in modern places but the evidence suggests that the demand can't keep up with the massive supply. For example vacancies in the City of Sydney are over 5%. A lot of that is modern apartment buildings and that's why rents are dropping across Sydney. There's still massive supply coming onto market and no prospect of it being filled in the short term. Construction is slowing in this sector but it'll take a number of years for migration to mop up this oversupply. And that relies on employment staying strong (so migrants come for jobs) while construction and retail both experience big contractions. It's possible but it's a delicate balance.

The other real problem is your modern apartment won't look so modern in 10-15 years time. And with exorbitant strata fees the net rental return is nowhere near enough to make them a good investment. What would the rental return after costs be? 2% assuming it's always rented? That's a crazily low return on your money when there are so many risks from owning a high rise apartment.

 

You are comparing two extremes - there is a big middle ground that you're missing.

Again, your argument makes no sense. The options are not live in Mascot or Zetland vs living in the outer suburbs. The inner eastern suburbs, as just one example, are even better located than these places and have far higher demand while not being full of out of scale mass-produced towers. The price is almost the same. You'd certainly have a decent selection to choose from with an ~800k+ budget. When I was living in Sydney, I rented an apartment in Potts Point in a building that was 100 years old and it looked great. It had amazing ornate ceilings, picture rails and cute windows - it felt much more homely than most new builds I've seen. I was perfectly happy to forego a rubbish chute for that, great nearby amenities and a 20 minute walk to work.

 

Yep agreed, which is why I ended up in one. I’ve had a few friends in red/blonde brick apartments. They were all so tired looking, strata was a joke (basically just don’t spend anything) and there was no sound proofing, you could hear everything, couldn’t turn up music, couldn’t have people over late

We do spend a fortune on strata but the upkeep is amazing, new carpets which get regularly steam cleaned, regular painting and patch up in common areas, gardening all done. It’s been a good experience personally

 

Living somewhere you want to live is incredibly important. But from a financial point of view I think you'd be clearly better off renting in one of these new developments than buying. Can I ask what you paid for the place and what the strata fees are?

 

Click one of these selections: Building profile - 1-5 Bourke St, Mascot NSW 2020

 

I heard on the radio this morning that there are notes in the strata minutes for the Mascot building dating back to 2011 about significant issues below ground level. So it's a can that has been kicked down the road for a long time. Anybody who has bought since then should have known about this. It's amazing how many people buy apartments and don't read the strata minutes.

 

These are the ones which have hit main stream media, I am sure there is others, some as serious some not as serious, but enough to suggest anyone buying a apartment 10yrs or newer, should do precise D&D before laying down their hard earned cash.

 

Yet when I asked a RE agent in Perth about them. They couldn't understand why I would want to read them.

 

It's possible they were an idiot who couldn't understand you doing due diligence. More likely they knew exactly why you wanted to read them, knew that there was a good chance you'd find something you didn't like and if it was made public itwould hurt their commission.

 

I tend to go with "idiot" I have asked others what the strata fees are at home opens and they can't tell me off the top of there head.

 

Yeah but again if it's in their best interest to have an ignorant buyer then they might just prefer to look stupid than inform you.The fact that real estate agents are incentivized to go for the maximum price with basically no other consideration is a huge problem. As I saw written recently there are more regulations and protections for somebody buying a fridge than somebody buying a house. It's insane that you can sell a house with known problems (eg leaks) and there is no obligation on the REA or vendor to declare them. I think it's only the ACT which requires it to be disclosed.

 

And now they've also locked the strata meeting down to "restricted access" to owners only - I'm assuming this is to prevent from things getting escalated during the strata meeting?
'Breach of trust': Residents of troubled Mascot tower condemn restricted access to meeting

And I wonder how many more of these Opal/Mascot Tower incidents will we see in the next 12 months or so? Seriously stay away from OTP apartments by all means....once burnt twice shy.

Cheers,
David

 

Strata is expensive, there’s no getting around that. Unit was 480k in 2012, strata is now 1500 a quarter, but I pay more because I’m on the top level. I do use the facilities though and we have a 24 hour guard

Not so sure, we have the same rule for all of our regular strata meetings too, owners only. They even ask people from the other strata plan next door to leave

 

How many owners purchased after that time though? With a lot of these developments, aren’t most of the buyers from overseas and buying OTP?

 

Most likely yes, if the majority of the owner didn't vote for fixing the problem then it is not the strata problem.

Ignorance is bliss.

 

With 130 odd apartments, there would have been plenty of sales over the last 8 years.

 

Shouting and walk-outs at Mascot meeting

what a mess