This week’s Strata Development Application being reviewed is the 8 lot strata development of 8 micro apartments at 433 Ocean Beach Road, Umina Beach NSW.
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Where is Umina beach
Umina Beach is a suburb within the Central Coast of New South Wales. By road, it is 85 kilometres north of the Sydney CBD and 111 kilometres south of the Newcastle CBD.
The Development
This development is a new build with a simple but efficient design, with eight (8) micro-apartments and 4 car parks. Within a couple of minutes walk from the beach, shops and cafes of Umina Beach this development embraces the tiny house and van life movements that are only growing throughout the world.
It also speaks directly to the growing issue of housing affordability this efficient design inside and outside the apartments make a perfect solution for first home buyers and downsizers.
Recommendations for Costs and Running Smoothly
The design already creates a development with low running costs, with no lifts, pools, and shared infrastructure the daily running costs are negligible. The possible costs this strata plan could experience are:-
- Cleaners and landscaper – this could be one visit a week, and could be conducted by the owners if someone feels happy to be involved for the benefit of everyone.
- Insurance – this will be the largest cost for the development and will include building, liability, and volunteer cover, this is important if someone does choose to help with maintaining the common property.
- Maintenance – with only a small amount of common property the costs of general repairs and maintenance will be almost nothing.
- Admin – this building would be best positioned for either self-managed or assisted self-managed, see stratasavings.com.au for more details.
With a development like this, the likely complaints and issues would be from parking, pets and noise.
We would suggest that the rules around these three (3) items be extremely clear and that signage be installed around the building so that everyone is aware of the community expectations. Considering these are micro-apartments and most people will live on their own, we recommend allowing pets. Being clear on the noise restrictions and aligning them with council rules is smart, so that council or police can be engaged to enforce any breaches. Parking should be allocated or visitor parking restrictions should be clearly signposted.