Sydney units crowding - in the news again

"The homes had curtain or wood partitions in living spaces to section off extra bedrooms packed with bunk beds.
The partitions stretch from the floors to just below the ceilings to take advantage of a legal loophole that classifies such walls as “furniture” rather than illegal modifications."

It's not really a loophole, it's either legal or it's not.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...493696191?sv=161bf4c00cd385af041a4261b5df6f91

 

In NSW there's no regulations pertaining to the size of rooms or occupancy numbers. Call it a loophole.

There are walls erected without a DA - illegal.

 

Sad that in this day and age people still do this to make money off others.

 

Just ask all those rich landlords

 

As the link above says, not walls, legal. So...

 

So NSW State Government pass new legislation detailing the number of people that can reside in a property and then pass it onto the local councils to manage.

They did this with pool fencing which would affect similar numbers as overcrowding has.

 

And commencement or enforcement of the new pool rulz keeps getting delayed.

 

It's a good point, if there are regular inspections, they should be picking this up.
I'd be pretty angry with this situation, or the drug house setup mentioned in the other thread.

 

Would think that strata would have a role to play here. Other residents in the same building should be bringing it up at meetings and writing letters outlining consequences to the landlords.
When I bought my 2 bedder, I dislidged 10 or 11 people all crammed in there - no subdivisions but different shifts at work etc. This would've affected the water bill not to mention noise levels and parking etc. Executive committee is able to take action. Why aren't they?

 

@Azazel Yes, that's normal in Sydney high rise apartment building. It's been happening since God knows when

If I own the unit in Sydney CBD, I will do it because of the following economical reason:

1. The tenants mostly Asian students looking for cheap and quick rent, so you don't have to worry about vacancy rate.
2. The landlord is happy to receive cash in hand for those tenants above.
3. If the unit is leased through a Property Manager, the inspection date is usually written with at least few days in advance, so they can still hide or place the extra beds on the emergency stairs

No one is taking this matter seriously hence it is still a normal practice nowadays.

 

It's not only students who are using this type of accommodation but many thousands of working holiday people from various parts of Asia who are here to earn money in a short period. They can't rent because they don't have income history and many of them work cash in hand jobs.

Many of them work as workers of subcontractor's subcontractors and are paid $10-15 hour. Most young cleaners in strata building of Asian(both East and South) appearance are these types and working in Asian restaurants. They work 2-3 jobs to make money to take home and they want to spend as little money as possible on housing. They are not here to enjoy comforts of a home.

So long as working holiday people are here these type of housing will be in demand.

 

Hi Wylie,

The landlords who usually do these things often just take cash in hand from the student or new immigrant tenants.

Generally these types of tenants have no other choice or knowledge of anything better as they have just arrived in the country and it is difficult for them to find a proper legally paying job to survive as they have little English language skills, and also their visa may restrict them from working more than X amount of hours. This means that they require to work in cash in hand jobs to merely survive.

This also benefits the landlord as he does not have to get the property managers involved, or anyone else for that matter who would cause regulations to be enforced. Because of this they do not have to declare any rental income (no tax), and do not have to pay for any of the usual ongoing costs for a properly managed rental which improves the bottom line ultimately. It is probably likely that a lot of these landlords own the apartments outright and simply use the homes as 'cash cows'

Overall it is a 'symbiotic relationship' or partnership of landlords who want to maximise cashflow renting to tenants with little other choice it seems

 

If you want you can buy the rights to run one of these slums haha. Head tenant was heading back home and put it on Gumtree for $6k. I remember emailing to get details about how they managed it. So dodgy but obvs either an owner or PM who didn't care so he was wanting to sell his business which was the right to be in charge of all of this cash and bond fleecing etc.

 

Geeze, doesn't sound like a very safe investment with all of the crackdowns they're doing lately.

 

Yeah I was being sarcastic. You'd be an idiot to run one of these schemes but I was amused how easy it is to buy a set up one! No limits to the dodgy out there in the world!

 

Not really, most of the overcrowded apartment in Sydney CBD still going business as usual, no sign of reduction or stopping so far.

 

I wonder where all these people would live if no one was able to get away with it

 

@rhinsor is that also the case in Perth ?
I've never been there so I cannot comment on it

 

Lots of properties for rent in Perth at the moment so I don't think they would have a big problem here, maybe a few years ago the issue was the same.