When businesswoman Bukola Adede bought an apartment in a luxury high-rise in North Sydney, she was shocked to be disturbed all day long by what she assumed was a neighbour constantly moving furniture around. Then there was a series of thudding noises that were so loud and made her apartment shake so much that Adede and a visiting friend thought bombs had gone off and called police.
Finally, she was told by the building’s concierge that the noises were all from a commercial gym that had been set up in a retail space below.
With so many commercial gyms operating as businesses below apartment buildings, it’s an issue happening all over Sydney, says Karen Stiles, policy director of the apartment owners’ peak body, the Owners Corporation Network. “I think gyms are just incompatible with residential living,” she said.
“There are always problems with the noise of weights being dropped but, when residents complain, things are always weighted in favour of the commercial interests as they tend to have a lot of votes at strata. It can be a shocker, and sometimes we now think, buy at a mixed-use building at your peril.”
Read full story:> https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/bukola-bought-a-home-now-she-s-trapped-in-a-noise-nightmare-20241022-p5kk7l.html
