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A warning has been raised about lightweight and dangerous cladding being used in many high-rise apartment buildings.
Kevin Young, president of Property Club, said a Grenfell Tower tragedy “was waiting to happen in Australia”, with the type of cladding used in the tower commonplace in many high-rise apartment buildings in Australia.
“There are currently thousands of Australians living in high-rise death traps made of highly dangerous and flammable materials,” Mr Young said.
“Since Property Club was established 26 years ago, we have banned buying apartments in buildings made of lightweight materials such as this type of cladding.
“These lightweight constructed buildings are highly dangerous especially since local councils handed over the safety certification of these building materials to private contractors.”
Mr Young noted the Australian construction market is being flooded by cheap and largely untested construction materials “that are being used by developers to build lightweight apartment towers to cut costs”.
“Builders are also using these dangerous materials in other forms of residential construction such as houses, small blocks of units and town houses,” he added.
“Residents in all these buildings made of lightweight inflammable materials are not only vulnerable to fire but also smouldering combustion and deadly silent styrene gas, for example, that at best affect the nervous system and at worse kill if not detected quickly.
“Property Club has a policy of only recommending apartment developments that are made of brick and concrete.
“We urge the government to implement more stringent testing and monitoring of these lightweight constructed homes to help avoid a Grenfell Tower tragedy in Australia.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emma Ryan
Emma Ryan is the deputy head of editorial at Momentum Media.
Emma has worked for Momentum Media since 2015, and has since been responsible for breaking some of the biggest stories in corporate Australia, including across the legal, mortgages, real estate and wealth industries. In addition, Emma has launched several additional sub-brands and events, driven by a passion to deliver quality and timely content to audiences through multiple platforms.
Email Emma on: Emma.Ryan@momentummedia.
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