Método utilizado para determinar la muestra en clientes

Academic historian Charles Pickett and Powerhouse Museum curator Carolyn Butler-Bowden provide a clear picture of Australia‟s love affair with apartment living in their 2007 book „Homes in the Sky: Apartment living in Australia‟. I have used their research to present a historical snapshot in which to contextualise Australia‟s

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growth in strata titled property. Australian landed gentry have had a history of owning secluded townhouses in blue chip suburbs as a getaway from extended country life. During the 1950‟s, the townhouse concept was popularised to become a beach getaway for city dwellers. Yet it was not until the 1960‟s that Australia embraced the strata title mechanism. In previous eras, town house ownership relied on „stock‟ housing in which prospective owners purchased shares in a property along with the „right of abode‟. The trading of property shares in town houses and apartment dwellings was subject to the approval of the governing shareholder board. The shareholder board had the right to veto a purchase where the board determined that the new owner would not „fit in‟ with the lifestyle of existing owners. In this way, town houses became sites for the generation of „exclusivity‟ in which class structure was maintained.

From the 1960s, freehold housing stock has been replaced by strata titled housing in the form of apartments, MPE‟s and gated communities particularly in inner city suburbs. Creating a strata scheme allows the developer to increase the number of saleable lots in relation to land size. With strata titled property, the developer on- sells his interest, often at the earliest opportunity to pay down debt accrued during the building process. Developers are profit driven. That is, the person who creates the organisation has little or no ongoing interest in its ability to function into the future. This unusual circumstance creates a unique organisation in which new owner members may be unaware that they have joined the organisation, since the purchase of real estate does not always draw attention to the compulsory nature of belonging. The advantage over stock housing as defined by McKenzie (2006b) is that, for strata titled properties, individual titles are issued for each lot and there is no reliance on the existing owners to approve the sale of individual properties. However it also takes away a means of ensuring that collectively, owners have similar values, attitudes and aims for their property, all of which make the functioning of the governing body easier. Bagaeen and Uduku‟s (2010) edited work considers the history of gated communities in particular. The selection of academic papers contained within this work predominately provides a view of settled communities in which owners work together for mutual benefit. The view that gated communities have existed for long periods in near harmonious circumstances has also been noted by other authors. For example Jurgens and Landman (2006) note the south American experience as being inclusive, with frequent working parties to keep vacant allotments tidy and street parties that extend to those who have opted

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out of levy payments. The commentary on western style strata communities is somewhat different. Stemming from the United States, strata titled communities were a bastardised form of Howard‟s utopian city in which the worst aspects were kept and lip service only paid to the idea of community (McKenzie 1996). Governing bodies have reported significant amounts of conflict within owner corporations (Blakely & Snyder 1999; Blandy & Lister 2006; McKenzie 1996). Conflict falls within two key realms. One is the adherence to rules and standards of behaviour. The other area of conflict is over required maintenance, cost of maintenance, and the cost of levies to run the complex generally.

The amount of interpersonal and intrapersonal conflict experienced within complexes has the ability to impact on ontological security within the home realm. Dupuis and Thorns (1998) for example link ontological security to the concept of home within transitional suburban environments. They note that home is a site of constancy in social and material environment; a spatial context in which routine existence is formed; where people most feel in control of their lives and are free from surveillance. It is the secure base around which identities are constructed. The contractual relationship between owners and joint ownership of common areas such as lifts, lobbies and corridors, services roads or parks, has the ability to threaten ontological security as voiced by Dupius and Thorns (1998, p. 27), since exercising rights over these areas is no longer in the realm of „close family relationships‟. Surveillance by others occurs within the common areas and the constancy of social and material environment cannot be guaranteed within the common areas. Routine may be disrupted by the needs of others living within closer confines. Australians, like Dupuis and Thorns‟ New Zealanders, dream of home as a freehold block in which one can be „oneself‟. Accordingly, the increase in living density is at odds with this dream and the ontological security that it provides as a place to be oneself. Therefore, the amount of conflict reported within strata complexes can be seen as an expression of tension between the dream of home ownership and the reality experienced within higher density strata environments. It is to probe this tension further the research reported here was undertaken.

I draw now on two particular studies undertaken in recent years to explain the research gap that this chapter fills. Blandy and Lister (2006) undertook a pilot study of a newly built gated community comprising converted stand-alone housing and apartment dwellings in England‟s Sheffield area. A combination of questionnaire

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and semi structured interview method was used with the majority of residents having moved into the estate within the previous six months. The original motivation to move into a gated community and their actual lived experience were therefore able to be assessed in relation to each other. In Blandy and Lister‟s (2006) research, only two residents were aware of the legal structure of the community they had bought into prior to purchase. Over half the interviewees were confused between the governing resident committee and the professional management company employed by the committee of management. Owners were unclear about their role within the governing structure, their officers and their roles. Some interviewees were unaware of governing rules or did not know they had to pay levies in addition to their council rate obligations and mortgage payments.

Blandy and Lister‟s (2006) research found that maintaining property values and security were significantly more important to most purchasers than ideas of community. It was noted that contact between residents did not necessarily develop into friendship. This confirms the idea that home within this type of complex does not always extend to common areas within complexes. Home owners do not necessarily feel responsible for the common property. Similarly, in an Australian study in the city of Brisbane, Walters and Rosenblatt (2008) found that while a nostalgic sense of community was appealing to many purchasers, few actively engaged in participative practices. Of greater importance however is the way these weak neighbourhood ties translate to the idea of participative management.

Alexander (1994) for instance found that residents may become active in deteriorating conditions (where their ontological security is threatened). Blakely and Snyder (1999) noted that owners actively volunteered outside their gated communities rather than for their home owner associations, thus leaving a small group to undertake most of the work. They further noted that these willing workers were sometimes ostracized by their community and were subject to threatening behaviour by other community members, who were unable to get their own way. These studies provide glimpses into some of the root causes of conflict within strata communities noted in an increasing number of studies. In particular Maxwell (2003) indicates that strangers are often bought together within these communities in a way that is not representative of wider society and without the benefit of understanding the contractual obligations and ramifications that bind these groups of strangers together.

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This point is elucidated further by Goodman and Douglas (2010) who undertook a study of websites promoting MPE‟s in Melbourne Australia. MPE‟s are a form of strata titled community often containing mid and low rise detached housing similar to that contained in Blandy and Lister‟s (2006) study. However they do not contain the physical structure of gated compounds that limit entry into the estate which are a key security feature of gated communities. Goodman and Douglas used content analysis of publicly available websites noting that websites are often the first point of contact for prospective purchasers of off-the-plan property. Their aim was to understand how much information about the governing structures was provided to prospective purchasers. Their sample included ten developer websites in which homes within MPE‟s were being sold off the plan. Participant observation of one estate was included since one of the authors had already purchased within the targeted MPE. They found that notions of close knit community are often melded with luxurious resort lifestyles and promoted through personal recommendations of those who have recently purchased within a complex. Goodman and Douglas found that of the ten „off the plan‟ developer sale sites, only two developers referred to a governing body. In one instance the developer referred to the governing body as a glorified social club that residents could join if they wanted to, thus advertising a gregarious and close knit group of owners. Six of the websites promoted a sense of community as a selling point indicating that luxurious surroundings were a greater selling point than belonging to a community. The concept of luxurious, community owned facilities were depicted on all websites, often in great detail. The mandatory nature of belonging was mentioned on only one web site. The research findings that I have summarised here are important because they point to why Blandy and Lister found that so few residents were aware of the governing board, community assets that need to be maintained and the rules that could be imposed on owners within the complex.

Failure to understand the complexity of the new governing regime may impact on the asset value of the estate and hence individually owned property. The maintenance of asset value was seen as a drawcard in Blandy and Lister‟s research despite owners failing to understand the nature of the governing body and the compulsory nature of belonging (see also Low 2006). Using pooled data, Langbein and Spotswood-Bright (2004) found that high levy fees within complexes depressed asset value in comparison to similar properties with lower fees. However the involvement of professional management somewhat mitigated the

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effect of higher levies on asset value. The question remains as to how applicable this research is in an environment where owners are not aware of the governing body, the nature of belonging, the requirement to pay levies or the existence of professional management prior to purchase.

To develop this theme further, I consider the fact that the number of new dwellings that come onto the market each year, whilst significant, is outnumbered by the sale of previously occupied property. That is, only a portion of prospective housing consumers purchase directly from the developer. Moreover, developers of smaller complexes are more likely to mediate sales through real estate representatives or realtors. The real estate industry then, along with the developer, becomes a key structural influence in creating notions of how Australians view living within a strata complex whether MPE, gated community or apartment complex. It is through media advertising and infomercials that most real estate is sold.