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An upcoming review into Victoria’s Owners Corporations Act will focus on industry oversight and “prohibitive” collective sales policies, according to the state’s Minister for Consumer Affairs, Nick Staikos.
Minister for Consumer Affairs, Nick Staikos, said that the Victorian government plans to launch a review into the state’s Owners Corporations Act 2006, according to a recent episode of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria’s Real Estate Matters podcast.
Staikos said that the review panel will be headed by former minister for consumer affairs, Marsha Thomson, who will conduct a close analysis of the dispute resolution frameworks, financial hardship policies, and other operational processes of owners corporations.
Additionally, the review would look into other industry-facing aspects of the strata sector, such as the contracts awarded by owners corporations, and potential conflicts of interest, which he said “directly influence the fees charged to owners”.
The minister said that the review would also examine the laws that require unanimous agreement around collective sales in the Victorian strata sector, which he said were “prohibitive” towards developing higher-density housing across the state.
“If you own an apartment in Melbourne, and your apartment has 40 other owners, you have to get agreement from every owner of that apartment before you can actually sell that building to a property developer to build an even bigger building with even more lots,” Staikos said.
While no specific reform around collective sales has been outlined, Staikos said that the minimum requirement of 75 per cent support to sell an apartment building in NSW was a “much more manageable threshold”.
REIV interim CEO, Jacob Caine, said that Victoria’s strata sector has significantly expanded over the last two decades.
“More and more Victorians are finding themselves living in properties managed by owners corporations, with the number of Victorian strata occupants having grown dramatically from 638,488 to 1,209,713 between 2001 and 2021, and significant further growth expected,” Caine said.
Caine said the REIV would look to assist the Victorian government as it investigates the potential for improvement within the state’s strata sector.
“It is critical that we have a redesigned modern regulatory framework, central to which is ensuring best practice management qualifications and standards that serve to enhance Victorians’ quality of living,” he concluded.
The upcoming review marks REIV’s latest call for change in Victoria’s growing strata sector, with the peak body last year proposing the introduction of mandatory qualifications for owners corporation businesses and personnel.
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