NSW Government want to demolish a 20 year old stadium. Why?

You have probably already read the news that the NSW Government has announced two of Sydney’s sports stadiums will be demolished and rebuilt.

It's not a very popular decision either. 

The Cox Architecture-designed, 40,000-seat Allianz Stadium at Moore Park, built in 1988 as the Sydney Football Stadium, will be replaced with a new $705 million, 45,000 seat facility while the 85,000-seat ANZ Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park by Populous and Bligh Lobb Sports Architecture, 1999, will be replaced with a $1.25 billion rectangular stadium, which will seat 75,000. 

So lets do the math. $705 million for a new stadium with only 5,000 more seats than the current Allianz stadium, and $1.25 billion for a stadium that will have 10,000 less seats than the current ANZ stadium. Yeah, sure, that makes sense.

You can read more about this here

Changes to Strata Laws

NSW Fair Trading has introduced major new strata laws.

The new strata laws started on 30 November 2016 & the new building defect bond scheme will start on 1 January 2018.

Currently more than a quarter of NSW's population lives in, owns or manages strata.

Some key changes include:

  • strengthening the accountability of strata managers
  • allowing owners to adopt modern technology to conduct meetings, vote, communicate and administer their scheme
  • the need for owners to review by-laws (strata community rules) by 30 November 2017, which can be customised to suit their lifestyle - such as whether to allow owners to keep a pet by giving notice to the owners corporation
  • a process for the collective sale and renewal of a strata scheme
  • a simpler, clearer process for dealing with disputes
  • broadening tenant participation in meetings
  • a new option to manage unauthorised parking through a commercial arrangement between a local council and a strata scheme
  • a clearer and simpler three-tier renovations process, which waives approval for cosmetic renovations within the strata lot (for example, installing handrails for safety).

There are also measures to reduce red tape, such as simplifying financial statements for owners.