The Property Council of Australia has made a call for strata rules and regulations to be relaxed in order to prevent investors from being held back.
Chief executive of the Property Council, Ken Morrison has said that strata titles will increase as cities become more populated, and the system represents an “important form of ownership” for both residential and commercial property.
However Mr Morrison also said the current system comes with major disadvantages.
“It requires 100 per cent of owners to agree to wind up the scheme at the end of the building’s physical or economic life,” he said.
“Nothing lasts forever. As our cities evolve and grow, strata-titled buildings will need to be refurbished, renewed or demolished. However getting unanimous approval from even a dozen owners is a big challenge, but a few hundred is well-nigh impossible.”
He said the current system is “a strata title straightjacket which risks locking up our cities”.
The Property Council is asking for a decreased threshold and clearer renewal processes to help owners through a scheme termination.
Mr Morrison did admit that some states and territories are already heading in the right direction.
“Last week the WA government proposed a majority threshold for schemes of 10 or more lots which are more than 15 years old,” he said.
“This month the NT parliament will consider legislation to do the same.”
Mr Morrison said these proposals could be learnt from by other states such as NSW, “where reform momentum seems to have stalled”.
