2GB Sydney: Skips, scaffolding and bins that save parking spots, Sydney’s neighbour gripes

What’s the biggest thing you’ve fought with a neighbour about? Our CEO, Danny Gorog, joined James Willis on Sydney Now on 2GB Sydney to share what Snappers around the country have been telling us, and why New South Wales came out with some of the more colourful answers.

First, the numbers. We asked about 17,000 Snappers to rate how friendly their neighbours are out of 5. The national average was 3.84, and New South Wales scored 3.75, the lowest of any state. It’s a small gap, and Danny’s theory is about density rather than attitude. Sydney is one of the most densely packed urban areas in the country, and when more people live closer together, there are more chances for friction. James agreed, pointing to the apartments and townhouses without backyards in his own patch of the Inner West. It also lines up with another finding: regional NSW rated its neighbours as friendlier than Sydney did.

Across the country, the top gripes were:

• Rubbish and cleanliness
• Noise
• Building and development
• General behaviour and rudeness
• Animals

Danny calls the biggest one “bin friction”, and it’s consistent right across the country. Sydney’s standout is building works. According to Danny, Sydney leads the way in disputes over renovations, knockdowns, scaffolding and skips.

Then came the reports James called “great reading”. Snappers have told us about:

• Bins left on the road for four months to save a parking spot
• An apartment block that cut holes in its bin lids so it could keep overfilling them
• Visitors who honked hello and goodbye, day and night, with eight reports in a month
• A boat trailer report that led to the neighbour parking a van so close to the reporter’s car they couldn’t open the boot

Before anyone worries about the whole street, Danny put it in perspective: only about 1 in 100 of our reports mentions a neighbour. His advice for the other 99 is simple:

“You’ve got to go and talk to your neighbours and be friendly.”

Listen to the full segment below.