More Data on Strata in NSW

Since I know everyone loves statistics here’s some more about NSW strata schemes from the research being undertaken by City Futures Centre at UNSW (see blog Watch Out !  UNSW is Researching Strata Owners’ attitudes).

I’ve extracted the following from their first report.

Number residential and mixed use schemes

In May 2009, there were 63,942 residential strata schemes in NSW, of which 42,282 (66.1%) were in the Sydney metropolitan area. Within the Sydney metropolitan area, the highest number of residential strata schemes were in the Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Sutherland Shire (2,797), Gosford (2,446) and North Sydney (2,380). There were also high numbers of residential schemes in major regional centres including Wollongong (2,008) and Newcastle (1,407), and regional LGAs including Coffs Harbour (1,206).

Number of residential and mixed use lots

In May 2009, there were 571,579 residential strata lots in NSW, of which 473,742 (82.9%) were in the Sydney metropolitan area. Within the Sydney metropolitan area, the highest number of residential strata lots were in the LGAs of Sydney (76,271), North Sydney (27,093) and Sutherland Shire (25,874). Residential strata schemes in Sydney LGA have the highest average number of lots (36.0) per scheme. Outside of the Sydney metropolitan area, Wollongong LGA had the highest number of residential strata lots in NSW (11,857).

Percentage of schemes of 100 lots or more

In May 2009, there were 347 strata schemes with 100 lots or more in NSW, of which 337 (97.1%) were in the Sydney metropolitan area. Within the Sydney metropolitan area, Sydney LGA had the highest concentration of large strata schemes (10.3%); followed by only Strathfield (1.4%), Auburn (1.3%) and Leichhardt (1.3%) LGAs. Outside of the Sydney metropolitan area, Tweed LGA had the highest concentration of large residential strata schemes in NSW (0.3%).

And, this looks something like this when mapped across the state.

  

And, it tells me the following interesting things.

1.  More than a third of NSW strata schemes are not in Sydney. So, Sydney is not (yet) the high-density powerhouse of the state that it could and should be. 

2.   But more than 80% of NSW lots are in Sydney.  So, the larger schemes are in the state capital and not elsewhere.  In fact, only 10 strata schemes with more than 100 lots (of the 347 large strata schemes in NSW) were located outside Sydney.

3.   Compare scheme and lot proportions between Sydney and the rest of the NSW with population splits and you find that whilst there are about 7.0 million people in NSW, 62.9% of that population is based in Sydney.  So, that seems to match the scheme ratios (at 61%) than lot ratios (at 80%).

5.    There still not that many large strata schemes (over 100 lots) in NSW … only 347.  And only a handful of strata schemes with more than 500 lots … only 6.  Meaning that large schemes only represent about 50,000 owners or less than 8% of all NSW strata lots.

6.   Within Sydney the highest concentration of strata schemes is in Sutherland (they have 2,797 strata schemes) … which is a surprise. The next largest locality by strata scheme numbers is North Sydney with 2,380 which is almost as many as there are in Gosford (they have 2,446 strata schemes – who’d have guessed??).  And, interestingly there are twice as many strata schemes in Hornsby which is only recently developing compared to Ashfield which is the home to NSW’s first strata scheme.

7.   There are 76,271 strata lots in the Sydney City locality which is more than 3 times as many as there are in Sutherland and any other part of Sydney.  But there are only 12 local government areas in NSW with more than 10,000 lots.

So, if the NSW Government’s strategy to make Sydney a medium and high density mecca by 2036 are going to be realised there’s a lot of property development to get done in the next 20 years.

Find out more about the City Futures Centre and the research project at their websites.

Remember too that this data is from May 2009 – so it’s changed a bit by now.

Francesco …