Description
Australia is experiencing a housing affordability crisis, and governments are convinced that the solution is increased housingsupply through high density development.
While Australian cities need more apartments, large-scale development comes with significant costs for homeowners. This is
because strata legislation overrides the ordinary rule of Anglo-Australian property law that prohibits positive obligations on
freehold land. Strata titles are freehold fees simple, but they are subject to a statutory obligation to pay annual levies. Originally
intended to fund routine building maintenance, the levying provisions have opened the floodgates for the provision of extensive
services and facilities that owners are made to pay for, including those that have traditionally been publicly provided.
Purchasers of apartments in large-scale, mixed use high and low rise estates are now funding the on-going maintenance of
roads, parks, plazas, playgrounds, foreshores and bushland, including spaces that are publicly accessible. As Australia strives
to reach net zero, moving from centralized energy and water provision to local, distributed, privately-owned resources, apartment
owners are being called upon to own, manage and fund sustainability infrastructure such as embedded networks (microgrids),
trigeneration plants, black and grey water treatment plants, solar panels, EV chargers and car share services.
As lay owners often lack the desire or skills to manage complex infrastructure, developers embed the services of third party
companies in developments. Using stratum or volumetric subdivision, infrastructure might be sited on separate parcels owned
by the developer or associated companies, rather than on strata common property. However, apartment owners will still be
compelled to pay for maintenance and use of infrastructure through registered building management statements and developer-negotiated body corporate contracts.
The legal and financial obligations created by these developments are not only beyond the understanding of lay purchasers, but
also the governments and planners who are incentivizing them.
This paper will examine the financial and legal reality of large-scale high density development for owners, and the way in which
it is shifting costs for infrastructure and public space from the wider community, paying through rates and taxes, to apartment
owners, paying through private levies, with serious implications for housing affordability.
| Period | 5 Mar 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event title | International Association of Planning, Law and Property Rights |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Cardiff, United KingdomShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |