As the government works towards building new apartments as part of its strategy to make buying a home more affordable, owners and renters in low-cost apartments in the inner city are becoming increasingly insecure from redevelopment proposals for large high-priced luxury homes. The trend is being fuelled by strata rules that allow termination by special resolution which enables developers to buy into buildings, control management and then force vulnerable owners to sell.

Dissenting owners are only guaranteed “market value” plus disturbance costs which with low-cost housing options in the area eroding, prevents many from being able to afford a new home in their neighbourhood. Long term tenants also struggle to secure a home locally within their budget.

When the termination laws were introduced in 2015, the Labor opposition joined me to oppose them. In Parliament I asked the now Labor government to review the laws and ensure that forced sales can only occur when a building genuinely can’t be maintained, with protections against developers buying into schemes to purposely send a building into disrepair. I am also supporting the Potts Point Partnership campaign for heritage recognition to save important art deco and modernist buildings from demolition.  

My speech > HERE.