Renovating an Apartment in Australia: Owners Corporation Approval and the Rules That Apply

Last updated: 1 August 2026 · By Mossy Tariq, Founder — Property Blueprint Co.

In a house, the wall is yours. In an apartment, that same wall is a legal boundary. The tiles may be yours. The waterproofing membrane behind them is usually not. The pipe inside the wall almost certainly is not. And the people who get to say yes or no are your neighbours, voting.

That is the difficulty of renovating an apartment in Australia in one sentence. Most homeowners plan a strata renovation the way they would plan a house renovation with a smaller floor plan — design, quote, book the trades, start. Then the approval turns out not to be a formality running alongside the project. It turns out to be the project.

In strata, approval is not paperwork that follows the plan. Approval is what decides whether the plan is legal.

There is a second complication, and it produces most of the wrong advice online. Strata law in Australia is state law. Each state runs a different statute, a different approval mechanism, and a different definition of what you may do without asking. An article written from New South Wales rules is wrong in Perth.

Why does renovating an apartment need approval when a house renovation does not?

Because you do not own the whole apartment. You own a lot; the scheme owns the common property — structure, slab, the membrane under your bathroom floor, shared plumbing and wiring, and usually the exterior face of everything. Work that touches common property is not your decision alone, because the cost of it going wrong lands on every other owner.

Strata approval is a second, separate layer, and it is the one homeowners forget. Council approval — a DA, a CDC, or an exemption — is public law, and the rules covered in council approval for renovations in Australia do not stop at the lobby door. Strata approval sits on top of it, and the two run on entirely different timelines.

So budget the calendar for the approval phase. A committee that meets quarterly is a quarterly bottleneck, and a builder holding a start date issues a variation when that date moves.

What are the three renovation tiers under New South Wales strata law?

New South Wales is the place to start, because it is the only state that classifies renovation work explicitly and the three-tier model travels well even where the legal detail differs. Under the NSW Government's strata renovation rules, work falls into three categories.

Cosmetic work needs no approval. It is defined as changes that do not affect the structure or the outside of the property and do not require waterproofing — painting, hanging shelving, laying carpet, filling minor cracks. A scheme can add to that list through its own by-laws, so the by-laws are the first document to read.

Minor renovations need approval. The list includes kitchen renovations, changes to internal walls, and installing or replacing flooring, wiring, air conditioning, ceiling insulation, glazing and rainwater tanks. Approval takes more than 50% of the votes cast at a meeting, and a scheme's by-laws can delegate the decision to the strata committee. Two mechanisms matter. If the committee does not refuse within three months, the application is taken to be approved. And the owners corporation must keep the record for ten years — which is why the paperwork you file today is the paperwork a future buyer's solicitor reads.

Major renovations need a special resolution at a general meeting — passed when no more than 25% of the value of votes cast is against the work. This tier captures anything affecting the structure or exterior, anything requiring waterproofing, and anything needing council approval. Sit with that last one: because a bathroom renovation requires waterproofing, a bathroom renovation is a major renovation in New South Wales. It is not a committee decision. It goes to the owners.

Do Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia use the same tiers?

No. There is no national strata renovation code, and the differences are not cosmetic.

Victoria runs the Owners Corporations Act 2006. Consumer Affairs Victoria states that a lot owner is entitled to renovate or refurbish the interior of their apartment, and must notify the owners corporation if the renovations require a building or planning permit. The owner must also keep any part of the lot that affects its outward appearance in good and serviceable repair. That is a lighter touch than New South Wales for interior work — and a heavier one the moment a permit is triggered.

Queensland runs the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997, and it splits the question in two. Where an owner's work touches common property, the trigger is a dollar figure: per the Queensland Government's guidance on improving common property and lots, the committee can authorise it where the total cost is under $3,000 and it does not detract from the appearance of a lot. Above that it takes an ordinary resolution at a general meeting. Where the work sits wholly inside the lot, cost is not the test at all — approval turns on whether the work is structural, changes how the lot looks from outside, or breaches a by-law.

Western Australia is the strictest and the least understood. Under the Strata Titles Act 1985, a structural alteration to a lot needs the strata company's prior approval by resolution without dissent — a single objecting owner defeats it. Landgate confirms the counterweight: the alteration is taken to be approved if the strata company has not objected in writing within 77 days of being given the application, and the grounds for objecting are limited by the Act. In Western Australia, the clock is a tool.

South Australia runs two regimes at once — the Community Titles Act 1996 for schemes registered from June 2009, the Strata Titles Act 1988 for older ones — and both require a special resolution before an owner alters, demolishes or removes a building or changes its external appearance. Tasmania uses the Strata Titles Act 1998; the ACT uses the Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011.

Where does your lot end and common property begin?

This is the question that turns a bathroom renovation into a strata dispute, and almost nobody asks it before demolition.

In most Australian strata schemes the lot boundary sits at the inner surface of the walls, floor and ceiling. In practice the tiles are usually yours and everything behind them is usually not. The structural slab and the shared plumbing stack are common property. So, generally, is the waterproofing membrane — the layer that decides whether water stays in your bathroom or arrives in the ceiling below — because it sits on the structure rather than on your finishes.

So waterproofing is the hinge of the whole exercise. You are not replacing a floor. You are removing and reinstating a protective layer that belongs to the scheme and protects other people's property. That is why New South Wales classifies work requiring waterproofing as a major renovation, and why every state's dispute records are full of water ingress between lots.

The membrane is governed by AS 3740:2021, Waterproofing of domestic wet areas, which the Housing Industry Association confirms as the current edition. In a house that certificate is a document you file. In an apartment it is evidence — the paper that decides who pays when the lot below reports a leak in two years. Treat the hold point as set out in bathroom waterproofing in Australia: certificate in hand before a single tile goes down, because once tiling starts the membrane cannot be verified.

One related trap: hard flooring transmits impact noise through a concrete slab far better than carpet does. Acoustic performance is among the most common subjects of a scheme's own by-laws, and an acoustic report is one of the documents committees most often ask for when flooring is involved.

How do you get a strata renovation approved without losing three months?

Approval delay is almost always self-inflicted. The application goes in thin, the committee asks for more, the next meeting is six weeks away, and a two-week job has lost a quarter. Run this sequence instead.

1. Obtain the strata plan and the registered by-laws before you design anything. The plan tells you where your lot boundary sits; the by-laws tell you what your scheme has already prohibited, which is frequently stricter than the state legislation.
2. Classify the work in writing against your own state's test, not a national summary. Write one line per element — flooring, wet area, walls, tapware, benchtop, air conditioning — and record the approval each one triggers.
3. Write a scope of works precise enough to be approved without a second request. A committee that has to ask a question costs you a meeting cycle, and a renovation scope of works is what makes an application decidable on first reading.
4. Assemble the evidence pack your tier requires and send it complete. That typically means plans, work dates and hours, the licence numbers and insurance certificates of every licensed trade attending, and an acoustic report where hard flooring is involved.
5. Confirm whether the work also needs council approval and start that in parallel. A DA or a CDC runs on a different timeline to a strata resolution, and sequencing them one after the other is how a renovation loses a season.
6. Get the approval in writing, with its conditions, before any trade starts on site. Retrospective approval is not a substitute; in New South Wales an unapproved minor renovation can mean paying to reinstate the property.
7. File every compliance certificate the moment it is issued and copy the owners corporation. The waterproofing certificate matters most, because scheme records can be requested years later and the owner who cannot produce one pays.

Where preparation starts

A strata renovation is a normal renovation with an approval gate at the front and a permanent audience at the back. Every phase that applies in a house still applies — brief, budget, specification, quotes, contract, procurement, trades, hold points, defects list, practical completion — but several of them now produce documents for someone other than you.

The 12-Phase System is built around exactly that sequence, and each Renovation Blueprint carries the room-specific decisions, sign-offs and documents the prepared homeowner runs the project from. In strata, being the owner with the complete file is not tidiness. It is the position you argue from.

If the cost baseline is the right first step, use the free Renovation Cost Calculator — a trade-by-trade estimate for your specific renovation, in under 5 minutes, before any trade has quoted.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need owners corporation approval to renovate an apartment bathroom in Australia?

In almost every case, yes. A bathroom renovation involves waterproofing, and waterproofing touches common property because the membrane sits on the structure rather than on your finishes. In New South Wales that makes it a major renovation needing a special resolution. In Queensland an owner's improvement to common property over $3,000 needs an ordinary resolution. Western Australia requires a resolution without dissent for a structural alteration. The mechanism differs by state; the requirement to ask does not.

What counts as cosmetic work in New South Wales strata?

Cosmetic work is a change that does not affect the structure or the outside of the property and does not require waterproofing. Published examples include painting, installing hooks or nails, laying carpet and filling minor cracks. It needs no approval, and a scheme can extend the list through its own by-laws — so read yours first.

Can the strata committee approve my renovation, or does it need a general meeting?

It depends on the tier and the state. In New South Wales a strata committee may decide minor renovation applications where a by-law allows it, and if it does not refuse within three months the application is taken to be approved; major renovations can only be approved at a general meeting. In Queensland the committee can authorise an owner's improvement to common property under $3,000; above that it goes to a general meeting. In Western Australia a structural alteration requires a resolution without dissent.

What happens if I renovate my apartment without strata approval?

The owners corporation can require the work to be reversed. The NSW guidance is explicit that a homeowner who did not get permission for a minor renovation may have to pay to put the property back as it was. An unapproved renovation also leaves you liable for damage to another lot, and it surfaces at sale when the buyer's solicitor reads the scheme records.

Is the waterproofing membrane in my apartment common property?

Generally yes, because in most Australian strata schemes the lot boundary is the inner surface of the walls and floor, and the membrane sits on the structural slab behind it. Removing and reinstating it is therefore work on common property done by a lot owner, which is why it needs approval and why the AS 3740:2021 certificate matters. Boundaries are set on the registered strata plan, so confirm yours.

Do I need council approval as well as strata approval for an apartment renovation?

They are separate systems and you may need both. Strata approval is consent from the other owners under state strata legislation. Council approval is a planning and building matter — a DA, a CDC or an exemption depending on the work and the state. Many internal apartment renovations are exempt from council approval and still require strata approval. Establish each independently and run them in parallel.