Manage Building Defects to Improve Long-Term Outcomes

Most apartment and house owners who purchased a new property in the past 10 years have experienced building defects according to new research.

A national survey undertaken by financial research and comparison group Mozo has found that homeowners have been left with a staggering $10.5 billion in repair costs over the past decade as poor construction standards have left residents battling leaks, cracks and various other problems.

The building boom on Australia’s eastern seaboard has unsurprisingly seen the number of reported defects increase.

There have been 667,394 apartments, flats or units built nationwide from the end of 2000 up until March this year, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

A study by Deakin and Griffith universities surveyed buildings along Australia’s east coast and found that more than 70 per cent had at least one defect. All were built after 2003.

There have been 259,580 new apartments built in NSW since 2000. 97 per cent of buildings in New South Wales surveyed had at least one defect in multiple locations.

Victoria has seen 174,896 new apartments built since 2000. The study found that 74 per cent of new buildings built between 2008 and 2017 had defects.

In Queensland, 143,704 new apartments were built since 2000. A selection of buildings built between 2008 and 2017 found that 71 per cent had defects.

The Griffith-Deakin study’s co-author, Dr Nicole Johnston said when defects were found, they were generally a chronic problem across a building.

“It’s not isolated to one type or one part of the building. It’s across multiple areas in relation to how the building is being constructed,” she said.

The findings come as regulators continue to contend with fall out over the serious safety issues plaguing apartments in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

MYBOS provides developers a simple approach to capture and manage property defects and workflow management from start to finish in one easy to use custom branded app.

MYBOS connects residents with the developers to seamlessly manager and track building and apartments defect without the spreadsheets and thousands of emails.

MYBOS has been immensely helpful in the management of our developments said Lendlease project director, Tim Campbell.

“It is a complete toolkit to run our building affairs as soon as it is commissioned, and the development is better managed over its lifetime,” he said.

Click here to find out more on how MYBOS can help you manage your building defects or start your 30-day free trial today.

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