The State of Origin Final … Strata Style

Tonight the warriors of rugby league battle to see which of our Pacific Ocean states is the best.

But how do they compare off the rugby league field … and in Strataland ???

They’re closely matched in many ways and the differences can sometimes be subtle.  And, of course, each state is convinced of its superiority.

New South Wales is ahead on the following things -

• It was doing it first having built high rise apartments sooner than Queensland
• Started strata title laws in 1961 compared to 1972 in Queensland
• There’s also more strata schemes and strata lots in New South Wales than Queensland … running at 62,000 schemes and 700,000 lots versus 34,000 schemes and 305,000 lots
• New South Wales also has more strata managers than Queensland
• And there’s more strata lawyers in New South Wales too

But Queensland scores first on other matters like –

• On per capita basis Queensland is ahead with 1 scheme for every 102 people (New South Wales has 1 scheme for every 107 people)
• Queensland has bigger schemes than New South Wales and more of them
• There’s more different strata laws than New South Wales and Queensland has specialist laws to cover some of the larger schemes (like the Sanctuary Cove Act) which New South Wales doesn’t have
• There’s also many more on site and resident managers there (by a factor of at least 10 to 1)
• And, average strata management fees are higher in Queensland than in New South Wales

There’s some funny differences between the states too …

For instance, when New South Wales dropped the terms body corporate for owners corporation in 1997, Queensland responded by adopting that term itself.

Whilst in New South Wales a unanimous resolution is where no one votes against something, in Queensland that’s a motion without dissent and for a unanimous resolution everyone has to vote in favour.

Queensland meetings permit owners to vote by ballot (rather than attending or sending a proxy).

New South Wales has a single unit entitlement for each lot that covers voting rights and levy payments, Queensland has two (on for each), a presumption that they should be equal and the ability to constantly apply to vary entitlements if shared use of common property changes.

So, the two states are also closely matched rivals on the strata front with differences that matter depending on the bounce of the ball.

Let’s see who triumphs this time …. And enjoy the final tonight !

Francesco …