Buy an older apartment, beware of off the plan, building expert warns

PHOTO:  Building ministers have committed to implementing construction industry reforms. ABC News: Elise Pianegonda

The co-author of a landmark report on how to fix Australia’s building industry has declared she would not buy a newly built apartment, given the scale of the problems.

“If I was going to be investing in an apartment, I’d buy an older one. It’s common sense, isn’t it? It’s just logical,” Bronwyn Weir told a Four Corners investigation into Australia’s building industry.

“I wouldn’t buy a newly built apartment. No.”

Ms Weir and former senior public servant Peter Shergold co-wrote the Building Confidence report commissioned by Australia’s federal, state and territory building ministers.

The report, delivered in February last year, made 24 recommendations including a crackdown on private certification of buildings and registration of every person involved in the building process.

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