The final survey focused on strata owners. This survey ran between the 13th of March and the 15th of Novem-ber 2011. The survey was promoted through a numNovem-ber of channels, including through the distribution lists of SCA (NSW) and OCN, promotion in the Sydney Morn-ing Herald’s Flat Chat column, and print advertisements in Mx and Inside Strata. A prize draw was included as an incentive to participate.
An invitation to participate in the survey was also sent out to stratified random sample of 5,000 strata owners across NSW on our behalf by NSW Land and Property Information. These were selected to be representative of a cross section of strata scheme locations and scheme sizes. NSW Land and Property Information randomly selected the number schemes to meet the total mail-out number required from each sampling group and sent one survey to a selected address in each of those schemes. There was a problem with the address fields on some of the first 5,000 survey invitations sent out by NSW Land and Property Information, and so an addi-tional 5,000 invitations were sent out, using the same methodology, a few weeks later.
Both online and printed versions of the survey were made available to prospective respondents. The survey included both closed and open questions. The survey asked people for background information about them-selves and their strata schemes, their satisfaction with strata ownership and their owners corporation, their opinions regarding levies and changes, repairs and main-tenance, relationships with neighbours, participation in management decisions, access to information, disputes,
and satisfaction with their strata managing agents and building mangers. A copy of the full survey can be found in Appendix 5.
A total of 1,041 complete responses were received from strata owners, of which 21 were excluded during the data cleaning stage because they did not meet the cri-teria specified for survey participants (i.e. that there were three or more lots in their scheme, at least one residen-tial lot, and the scheme was in NSW), or did not provide adequate information to determine whether they met these criteria. This resulted in a sample of 1,020 respons-es reprrespons-esenting approximately 990 strata schemrespons-es across NSW5.
There is no available data on the exact size and nature of the total population of strata lot owners, however, it is possible to compare the characteristics of these respondents with the characteristics of people who identified as household heads who are over 20 years old and living in owner occupied flats, units, apartments, town-houses, row-houses and villas in NSW from the 2006 Census of Population and Housing collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), as a proxy for strata owner occupiers.
As 88% of the respondents to the owners survey were owner occupiers, this can provide an indication of the representativeness of the sample. Table 5.4 below compares the ABS sample with our own sample of strata owners.
Table 5.4: Characteristics of owners survey respondents in comparison with ABS 2006 sample ABS 2006 sample Owners Survey
sample6
Owners survey owner-occupiers sub-sample
Age 20-24 0.1% 0.6% 0.6%
25-29 6.0% 6.9% 7.2%
30-24 11.4% 10.5% 10.0%
35-39 9.7% 10.0% 10.5%
40-44 10.2% 9.2% 9.5%
45-49 9.0% 8.3% 8.1%
50-54 8.8% 9.9% 9.3%
55-59 8.7% 10.2% 9.6%
60-64 8.3% 11.0% 10.9%
65-69 6.1% 10.2% 10.2%
70-74 5.6% 7.1% 7.4%
75-79 6.7% 3.2% 3.5%
80-84 5.5% 1.9% 1.9%
85 and older 3.7% 1.0% 1.1%
TOTAL 100.0% 100.0% 99.9%7
Gender Male 55.4% 44.6% 45.0%
Female 44.6% 55.4% 55.0%
TOTAL 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Labour Force status Employed 62.8% 68.6%8 67.3%
Unemployed 1.5% 1.0% 1.0%
Not in the labour force 34.0% 30.1% 31.2%
Not stated 1.6% 0.4% 0.3%
TOTAL 100.0% 100.0%9 100.0%10
As can been seen in Table 5.4, our survey sample com-pares closely to the ABS Census. Differences of note include a moderate over-representation of 55-74 year olds in our survey sample and an under-representation of people over the age of 75. We also sampled a higher proportion of employed, and lower proportion of those not in the labour force than in the ABS sample11. Given that we received over 1,000 responses to this survey of owners; the distribution of the respondents broadly reflect the distribution of the total
popula-tion of strata owners in regard to age, sex and labour force status; and the respondents were geographically spread across NSW (see Figures 5.4 and 5.5), we can be confident that this survey sample is broadly representa-tive of strata owners in NSW. Confidence levels for this survey are calculated at +/- 3.1%12. For example, if 60%
of respondents agreed with a statement, the range is between 56.9% and 63.1% of the total population13.
Figure 5.4 Distribution of owners survey respondents by Local Government Area, NSW
Figure 5.5 Distribution of owners survey respondents by Local Government Area, Greater Metropolitan Area
However, it is important to note that 60% of the re-spondents to this survey also indicated that they were on the executive committees of their strata schemes.
This high proportion of executive committee mem-bers amongst the survey respondents is likely a result of the higher interest taken by this group in the issues covered in the survey. While the survey of owners is broadly representative of strata owners across the state in terms of age, sex, labour force status and location, the respondents to the survey are likely to be more engaged in issues regarding their strata schemes than the total population of strata owners. The implications of this for understanding the survey results are noted throughout Chapters 7-11 of this report.
The responses to the survey were analysed in the same manner as those of the executive committee survey.