Plain English guide to community living

How does Strata Title work?

Most home units, town houses or villas in New South Wales are held under Strata or Community Title. Strata and Community titles are particular types of Torrens Title. When you own a house or a block of land you usually have absolute ownership of not only the house and land but also the air space above the land and the earth underneath. This is known as "absolute" ownership of the whole vertical column.

When you buy a Strata Title property the only thing that you usually "own", in the absolute sense, is the cubic space within the inner surface of the walls, floor and ceiling of the outside walls of the Unit. In other words, you own a horizontal slice taken out of the vertical column. The rest of the property (excluding your Unit and all the other Units) is owned by a body called The Owners' Corporation (formerly called the Body Corporate).