Menu Close

Articles on Residential property

Displaying all articles

Government ministers responded to the construction industry crisis by announcing a national approach to implementing recommendations of a report they commissioned in 2017 and received 17 months ago. Bianca De Marchi/AAP

Ministers fiddle while buildings crack and burn

The construction industry crisis didn’t happen overnight. Authorities have been on notice for years to fix the problems that now have the industry itself calling for better regulation.
The burden of regulatory failure hasn’t just hit residents of evacuated apartments like the Neo200 building in Melbourne – it affects everyone living in a building with serious defects. Ellen Smith/AAP

Housing with buyer protection and no serious faults – is that too much to ask of builders and regulators?

Years of regulatory failure are having direct impacts on the hip pockets of the many Australians who bought defective houses or apartments. It’s turning into a multibillion-dollar disaster.
Can Australians be confident that the new National Construction Code will ensure new buildings avoid structural defects like those that led to the evacuation of the Opal Tower (left) in Sydney? Dylan Coker/AAP

Australia has a new National Construction Code, but it’s still not good enough

Under the new code, buildings are hardly likely to differ measurably from their fault-ridden older siblings and can still fall short of a six-star rating. It’s possible they may have no stars!
Australia got in first with restrictions on foreign investors in housing, but Jacinda Arden’s new government plans to go further. Daniel Munoz/AAP

Foreign ownership of housing – how do Australia and New Zealand compare?

Concerns about foreign investors driving up housing prices have been growing. Australia was first to bar foreign purchases of existing residential property, but New Zealand is set to go further.

Top contributors

More