The capacity for urban renewal in Sydney has been boosted with new laws that make it easier to redevelop a strata scheme.
Research by UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre indicates this renewal will occur unevenly across the city, with gentrification likely in the inner and eastern suburbs, densification in the middle-ring and little change in the west.
Renewing the Compact City: Economically viable and socially sustainable approaches to urban redevelopment was launched at The Mint by NSW Fair Trading Commissioner Rod Stowe on Wednesday, 25 November. Slides from that presentation are available here.
The report explores equitable and viable solutions to the legislative changes and involved interviews with 34 stakeholder groups and a survey of more than 1200 residents, both owners and tenants, of strata dwellings across Sydney.
The new Strata Schemes Development Act (NSW) 2015 will reduce the level of owner approval required to terminate a strata scheme from 100% to 75%. Equal numbers of strata residents surveyed for the report supported and opposed the changes to voting requirements for the termination of strata schemes.
Director of City Futures, Professor Bill Randolph, said the legislative changes present a fundamental change to the rights and responsibilities of owners of strata titled property in NSW.
“We don’t want to see owners forced to sell their homes, nor do we want to see owners holding out simply to receive a larger share of the development value,” he said.
“Protection of vulnerable groups from hardship is also paramount. Strata residents represent a diverse cross section of the Sydney community with 52% having been born outside Australia and many residents are elderly or have low-fixed incomes.”
Read more of this story here