The project investigated the broader implications of the lived experiences of apartment residents and owners for the social sustainability of cities. The project aimed to raise awareness of the unique challenges of apartment ownership and apartment living and provides proposals to support better outcomes for apartment residents and for the broader community. The research provides information that helps us to understand how the needs of different people living together in strata schemes can best be accommodated and what can be done to make strata properties attractive places to live for everyone. It opens new opportunities for inter-disciplinary and international collaboration and provides evidence to inform planning and urban development policy nationally and internationally.

Research Questions

Why is it that some strata schemes seem to run really well – they are well managed and the people who live them are content – while others are not run so well and the people who live there are less happy?

Does this have anything to do with the mix of people who live in a scheme and the relative control different people have over how the scheme is run?

What can we learn from those strata schemes that are actively tackling specific management issues? Can we use this information to provide tools and resources to assist people who live in and manage schemes to make their schemes better places to live?