If you’ve ever lived in a townhouse strata lot, you may or may not have noticed that you pay slightly less in strata fees than apartment style condo owners. This is a generality of course, and there are a thousand exceptions to this rule, but there is certainly enough data to support this on a large scale.

Why do strata townhouse owners pay lower strata fees?

The real reason here comes down to less common area. Again, this is not necessarily true across the board as many townhouse complexes have extensive common areas or are attached to apartment style strata towers, but if you look at the average smaller townhouse complex, this is typically true.

3 reasons townhouse living is less expensive when it comes to strata fees

1. Less common areas to manage such as hallways, lobbies, pools, fitness centers, etc. All of these common areas require cleaning, maintenance, replacement of flooring, paint, etc, and that ultimately comes out of the owner’s pocket in the form of strata maintenance fees!

2. Most townhouse strata buildings don’t have elevators, which can be very expensive to maintain and to replace. Elevators will typically wear out after 25 + years of service, and can cost an easy $500,000 to completely replace. Add in a monthly telephone line, service contract, and cleaning costs, and you have a major cost savings without one.

3. Strata management fees. You will find that most strata agents and strata management companies will charge slightly less for townhomes vs. apartment style condos simply due to the fact that they are slightly easier to manage. Less common areas, less maintenance required, and less headaches add up to an easier job for strata managers.

As you can see, there are certain cost savings when it comes to townhouse living. If you ‘re interested in seeing how we can help manage your strata townhouse, please contact our property management company today!