All possible alternative options to help owners of a defect-plagued Sydney apartment building will be weighed up by the NSW government as it dismisses a rival plan to offer residents low-cost loans.
Fair Trading Minister Victor Dominello said on Saturday an expert panel led by NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler would be immediately set up to find a solution for owners of the uninhabitable Mascot Towers complex.
He said the team would look at the feasibility of remediating the building, but it would also report back on "all other options available to resolve this matter".
"(The) report is a crucial first step in finding a solution for the long-suffering owners of Mascot Towers," he said.
"Without this, owners would remain in limbo with no clear path forward on a course of action."
Residents were rushed from the 132-unit block in Sydney's inner south in June 2019 after reports of movement in the building.
Major cracking was detected and engineers later declared the building uninhabitable.
The opposition on Thursday announced it would provide low-interest loans to owners or act as guarantor in order to fix the remaining issues in the building if it won the March election.
Labor says the government should have offered low-interest loans to owners when the complex was evacuated.
But Mr Dominello said he didn't understand how "blindly" adding more debt for owners would help those already struggling financially and psychologically from the building debacle.
"The announcement by NSW Labor that, if elected, they would provide a loan or act as a guarantor for a loan to remediate Mascot Towers, without a genuine understanding of all the issues, beggars belief," he said.
The state government has provided more than $16 million in rental assistance to residents and Mr Dominello says the financial aid will continue until a solution is found.
