More than 2.5 million Australians now live in an apartment, and over the next decade, that number is set to soar. While governments are sweeping planning controls to boost the number of apartments in our capital cities, the multi-billion-dollar strata industry, which is supposed to protect homeowners’ interests is cashing in.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00We're told the solution to the housing crisis is high-density. Millions more apartments
00:11are coming.
00:12It's really hard as a teacher and a single mum to be able to afford a property, so kind
00:16of having an apartment or a unit was a way for us to get into the housing market.
00:21The companies hired to manage these buildings are cashing in to the tune of $7 billion a
00:29year. But this strata industry is trapping apartment owners in a nightmare.
00:36It's the hidden costs. It's the random mismanagement costs that you know nothing about.
00:44Across the country, governments have failed to keep up.
00:48There is no question we need to do a better job of regulating strata.
00:53And they're not protecting owners.
00:55The government's got to invest in this. It's all going to hell in a handbasket.
01:00Earlier this year, we asked you to tell us your stories about living in strata. Thousands
01:06of you responded.
01:07This is the spreadsheet that we produced, which documented every invoice that had been
01:13paid without our authorisation.
01:16It's just like a Pandora's box opened up and it was like one thing after the other.
01:20Payments made for services not provided, and then...
01:29In this Four Corners, we reveal apartment living is putting us at the mercy of a rapacious
01:35and unethical industry.
01:37The rot runs deep from hidden fees, to secret insurance kickbacks, to deals with developers.
01:44Our findings will shock you.
01:47It's almost as if the whole business model has been designed to, frankly, screw Australian
01:55apartment owners.
01:56I always said this industry needs a Four Corners moment.