Owners corporations’ must matter in Melbourne’s budget

In a neighbourhood where nearly every resident lives in a high-rise apartment, the absence of any meaningful focus on owners’ corporations (OCs) in the City of Melbourne’s draft 2025–26 budget is deeply concerning.

Apartment living is a different way of living – coming with its own legal and practical complexities. Unlike standalone houses, residential strata is a highly regulated form of property ownership.

It is governed (in part) by OCs – legal entities responsible for managing common property such as lifts, fire safety systems, and shared amenities. Regulated under Victoria’s Owners Corporations Act 2006, OCs manage billions of dollars in shared infrastructure across the city. They are, in effect, one of the largest and most critical forms of property and community governance in the City of Melbourne.

Yet in more than 150 pages of the draft budget, apartment living is mentioned few times. One concerns a pilot program to help apartment residents and businesses with energy efficiency and net zero upgrades – a promising idea. However, it notably fails to acknowledge the central role of OCs, without which no building-level upgrades can be delivered. Another mention refers to converting vacant office buildings into residential apartments.

While this suggests that office-to-apartment conversions may help address some of Melbourne’s housing challenges, it overlooks the realities faced by the thousands of existing strata buildings that are already home for the majority of the city’s residents.

This oversight matters.

Retrofitting buildings for energy, addressing skyrocketing insurance costs, planning long-term maintenance, and managing waste in vertical environments all rely on collective action through OCs. Without targeted support and recognition in the budget, OCs will continue to be left to navigate these complex issues without adequate resources or guidance.

It’s well past time for the council to treat apartment living as a distinct policy area – one that demands tailored services, funding, and engagement. OCs are not administrative bureaucrats; they are the backbone of our city’s residential infrastructure.

If you live in a high-rise, now is the time to speak up. The more the council hears that residential strata – and how this operates – matter, the more likely we are to see real change in future budgets.

Let’s make sure our buildings, as high as they are, are not overlooked.

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